


A Tourist's Guide to the Universe

by wordjunket



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Firefly Setting, Arc Reactor Issues, M/M, Slow Burn, Tony Stark Still Has Arc Reactor, but with hearts of tarnished gold, criminals, space
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2019-06-10
Packaged: 2019-06-27 06:41:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 28,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15680073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wordjunket/pseuds/wordjunket
Summary: Captain Steve Rogers of The Avenger has a problem keeping mechanics on his ship. After he picks up a man known only as 'Tony', an iffy-at-best engine powering his ship through space becomes the least of his worries.





	1. Stuttgart

**Author's Note:**

> This has taken me literal years to write. I have no idea why, as it took me an afternoon to plot out. Clearly, I suck at time management. 
> 
> There is a disclaimer about where I've drawn inspiration from the Firefly series at the end of this story - I will caution that it does hold spoilers for what happens in the story, to some extent anyway. 
> 
> For anyone who hasn't seen Firefly, that's okay! I explain pretty much anything that's important, and some things have been twisted to suit my needs in here anyway. Just know that it's the original Avengers crew, piloting a ship in space, and cursing in Chinese because that's just hilarious.

A Tourist’s Guide to the Universe

 

 **Welcome to Stuttgart!**

**The only dwarf planet in 616 galaxies that is wholly devoted to providing an affordable market experience to travellers and tourists alike! Come and experience the rustic charm of our portside markets, accessible from every side of the planet. Spend your day (and your credits!) at our eclectic markets where we sell everything from low-priced ship parts to exotic foods previously only available on the Core Planet’s. We have something for everyone!**

 

“We need to find someone selling compression cores,” Captain Steve Rogers said, eyes tracking left and right as he led the way down the middle of the main street of the North-East port on Stuttgart.

“That’s a lot easier said than done, Captain,” Clint Barton huffed, sidestepping a huddled over man who was shuffling down the dirt compressed road at an impressively slow pace.

“Tis no problem. The Stuttgart markets are most famous for their selection of wears,” Thor Odison laughed heartily, the old compression core from their ship easily slung over his shoulder, as if it wasn’t a hulking piece of metal parts and wires.

Steve reflected that Thor wasn’t wrong. Stuttgart was famous to having a lot of items for sale, maybe half of them were even legal. If the dwarf planet had been located closer to the Core Plants, where the Universal Security Council liked to patrol and arrest anyone who even hinted at illegal activities, then its vendors and buyers would be locked up on a jail moon before they had time to even think of escape. Of course, if the place had been swarming with USC soldiers, Steve would have been avoiding it as he had no desire to end up in a cell himself. The flimsy cover that The Avenger crew used as curriers and cargo transportation would only hold up under scrutiny for so long. Being accused of smuggling and other illegal activities would be more than enough to get them each assigned their very own minimalistic 6x8'ft cell. 

“Let’s just hope this one has what we’re looking for, or else we won’t be getting far off this rock,” Steve said, the last part more to himself then his crew.

Clint snorted, opening his mouth to retort, when the sound of breaking ceramic from the nearby bar caught their attention. The trio jumped back a step as a man was suddenly thrown through the window of the bar, the holographic glass flickering madly before realigning itself once more.

Steve blinked in surprise as the man rolled twice before coming to a stop, a loud groan sounding from him as he raised a hand to his face.

“ _Qing Wa Cao De Liu Mang!_ ” A male voice roared as a large man with a pencil thin moustache burst forth from the pub, cheeks flushed with a combination of liquor and anger.

“Now, now,” the man who had been thrown scrambled to his feet, hands clad in fingerless gloves were held up before him in the universal sign of calming someone down.

“How dare you come into me bar and say such filth.” Behind the angry man a series of equally ugly men appeared from within the dark depths, all looking ruby faced and ready for blood.

“Hey, you can’t blame me if you’ve not learned what a wash cloth is for.”

Steve couldn’t help but feel amusement stir, despite the rational part of his mind that was shaking its head at the man’s ballsy stupidity.

“Imma kill you, little man,” the leader snarled before launching towards him.

Steve knew he shouldn’t get involved, the fight had nothing to do with him.

Still…

Four against one was hardly fair.

It was the work of no more than thirty seconds. While Steve punched a guy in the face, knocking him out in one hit, Clint scuffled with another before he finally gave up and Thor simply used the compression core as a bat and whacked someone out cold. Looking over, Steve was about to intervene with the aggressor attacking the gloved man, when the smaller man took a good hit to the face, reared back and suddenly pulled a laser gun from seemingly nowhere. The large man, understandably, stopped moodily in his tracks.

“Okay, this was fun, full points for style, but I think our little knock-down brawl is attracting more attention than either of us want. How’s about you go back inside and I go on my way?” He offered.

There was a tense moment, where neither of them moved, just stared at one another before the large man let out an angry sounding grunt.

“ _Hwen Dan,_ ” he insulted him before turning and shuffling back into the pub, not even seeming to care about his fellow fighters strewn across the dusty street.

The danger now passed, Steve took a moment to catalogue the man, taking in the van dyke, dark hair, and eyes that were a warm brown colour. He was fairly attractive, despite the redness on the side of his chin suggesting he was going to have an impressive bruise there come tomorrow.

“Hey, thanks of the help,” he grinned at them, teeth white.

“No problem, four against one hardly seemed like fair odds,” Steve nodded to him, polite but still weary of the gun he held in his hands, even if was pointed harmlessly at the ground now.

“That it isn’t,” The man nodded back, eyes trained on Steve as if examining him, before he seemed to pull himself together with a barely perceptible shake.

“Anyways, I’d best be going,” he took a cautious step back, as though determining if they were going to go after him for some kind of reward for the heroics.

“See you ‘round,” he quickly turned and disappeared into the sea of people loitering around.

“Okay, we’ve filled your daily quota for stupid, can we find that compression core and get going?” Clint bitched. Steve resisted the urge to roll his eyes, knowing that Clint enjoyed a good bar fight just as much as him.

“Let’s go,” he said, eyes still lingering on where he’d lost the stranger in the crowd.

It took them another half an hour - Earth-that-was time - before they managed to find someone who had a stockpile of semi-legal looking engine parts, including a newer model compression core.

“Twenty-five credit, twenty-five credit. You want,  _Shian Shen_ , you pay,” the seedy-looking Asian man gestured emphatically with his hand, the fancy rings weighing down each finger catching the muted light. His yellowed teeth were visible in a sly smile and Steve knew he was probably getting ripped off with the price.

“Twenty credits,” he repeated calmly, not interested in bartering with the man too much as he wanted to get back on his ship and the hell off of this rock. He had deliveries that needed to be made and a schedule to keep.

“Twenty-five credit!” The man insisted, voice becoming shrill.

Steve sighed before giving in, the money they would make off this latest shipment of goods would be enough for him to pay a little more now.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” a voice called out lightly from the shadows beside the stall.

All four looked over and Steve was surprised to find the mystery bar fight man coming forward, an easy smile on his face and eyes focused on the compression core that they were currently haggling over. The bruise on his face was indeed beginning to darken, and he now had a sack hanging from a rope slug over one shoulder.

“Twenty-five credits is theft.  _Juh Shi Suh Mo Go Dohng Shee?_ ” He dropped his sack and grabbed the compression core from the man and began waving it around, his own gestures just as prominent but far more dangerous as he held a very heavy piece of machinery. Steve was impressed with the man’s ability to lift it with such ease.

“Who invite you? Eh? Mind your own business,” the store vender snapped, shoulders hunching defensively.

“They’ll pay fifteen credits and no more. You don’t want the business, I’ll take them somewhere else,” the man calmed down somewhat and the two eyed one another for a long moment before the store vender huffed out an irritated breath.

“Fifteen credit, hurry, hurry,” he held out his ring heavy hand, fingers curling and uncurling impatiently.

Steve hid his surprise as he handed over the fifteen credits, eyes straying to the stranger who still held their compression core easily, resting it on his shoulder the same way Thor still held their old core.

“Pleasure doin’ business with you,” the stranger tipped an imaginary hat and quickly turned to the rest of them. “Let’s get out of here quick before he decides he don’t much like our transaction.”

Steve agreed easily, mostly because he had been under the same impression from the beady little eyes glaring at them. He watched as Clint, rather considerately, picked up the strangers’ sack for him, before leading the way towards the ship. Steve eyed the man who walked beside him calmly, as if nothing was amiss.

“So, want to tell me your name?” Steve finally asked, when it became clear the man was content to walk in silence.

Brown eyes slid over to him and a small smile quirked up the corner of his mouth in a way that was undeniably attractive.

“I’m Tony,” he offered a little wave with his free hand.

“Steve.”

“Oh, I’m betting there’s a ‘Captain’ in there somewhere,” Tony grinned.

“Yes, Captain Steve Rogers. This here is Clint Barton, my pilot, and Thor, he’s sort of like a weapon in and of himself,” Steve smiled slightly as he gestured to each man individually.

“Charmed, I’m sure,” Tony nodded awkwardly, the compression core in the way.

“You sure seem to know your way around haggling,” Steve said, mind turning over the questions he really wanted to ask.

“Used to it. You clearly didn’t know what you were tryin’ to buy either, and you helped me out earlier so, now we’re square,” Tony shrugged again.

Steve acknowledge this with a nod of his head before continuing.

“Seem to know your way around engine parts, too.”

“I’m good at ‘em, is all. Always have been good at anything involving buildin’ something,” Tony smiled, looking pleased with himself, but also honest.

“You know,” Steve slowed to a stop, putting his back to where The Avenger was waiting behind him. “I’m actually looking for someone to work some maintenance on my ships engine on the way out to Ariel. If you’re interested?” He offered.

Steve didn’t know what it was about mechanics, but they never seemed to last very long on his ship. They were always a wrong fit for the rest of his crew and he had long since given up on finding one person who would be able to do the job to his standards and willing to stay with them long-term. As a result, the engine was probably not in the best shape and Steve had resorted to giving lifts to people who had some mechanical knowledge just to keep his ship in the sky.

“Ariel? Capital of culture and beauty just this side of the ‘verse?” Tony cocked his head, but appeared to actually be thinking about it.

“You’ve been there before?” Steve inquired.

“Once, long time ago,” something wistful wrapped around his words for a moment before he cleared his throat. “Yeah, okay. I could do with seeing some place pretty for a change,” he grinned.

“Good, okay,” Steve looked around him and settled on Clint who had been making his way up the ramp with Thor.

“Clint, put our visitors' stuff in the cargo hold while I show him down to the engine room. Then I want you up to the bridge, let’s get out of here.”

Clint sent him a salute which was mostly sarcastic, but Steve knew the man would do as he’d asked, before walking up the ramp himself, Tony on his heels.

Walking through the airlock area, Steve moved into the cargo hold and over to the control panel where he pushed the intercom button.

“We’re in the sky in five, people,” he said, before letting go of the button and turning back to Tony.

“Okay, let’s show you to your new favourite room.”

The cargo hold was the largest room in the ship, two stories high and able to store everything they’d ever tried to smuggle or transport. Currently, it held a few of the standard issue plastic crates with nutritious protein packs and miscellaneous supplies. Steve lead Tony up the stairs of the catwalk overlooking the cargo hold, then through the dining room and back hall to the engine room.

Steve paused in the entrance-way, watching silently as Tony continued forward, eyes taking in the warm, light filled room. The walls were honeycomb shaped for optimal stability and the huge engine that powered the ship was shaped like one of the ancient bullet casings that guns used before the invention of laser weapons, back when Man was confined to only one planet. Tony walked over to the engine, reaching into the open sides and gently spinning the currently off core.

“So… do you think you can fix whatever’s broken?” Steve asked when the silence dragged out.

“What on earth-that-was have they done to you?” Tony finally muttered, his eyes still fixed on the engine. “ _Wong Ba Duhn_ ; you poor baby.”

It took a second for Steve to realise that Tony wasn’t talking to him, but to the _engine_ , one of his hands caressing it like it was a particularly good dog.

“I’ll fix you right up, just hold on,” Tony continued, finally taking the compression core he had been holding and fixing it into place within the engine, hands familiar and nimble as they connected wires and slotted bits and pieces around.

“Well, I’ll meet you in the dining room for a meal at 1800 hours,” Steve called out, having to make do with the vague hand wave he received from Tony who was still focused on the engine.

Shaking his head, Steve turned and moved back along the back hall, through the dining room and front hall, finally coming out at the bridge.

The control room for The Avenger was full of switches and little lights, screens that showed various vitals of the ship, images from outside and detective radars. In the large chair manning the controls sat Clint, hands moving familiarly over the buttons and switches from years of practice. Leaning against the console out of the way was Natasha Romanov, a beautiful red-haired Companion of the Universe.

“I hear we picked up a mechanic?” She said upon seeing him, her head tilted slightly to the side in question, causing her short hair to brush against her cheek.

“Just until Ariel,” Steve nodded, eyes tracking over the screens and understanding only half of what was going on.

“We’re good to go, Captain. That new compression core is working wonders and the engine is once more up and running just this side of efficiently,” Clint reported cheerfully, before glancing back at Natasha and smirking.

“We found him in the middle of a bar fight, then he saved the Captain credits on buying a new core. Like he ain’t gonna latch onto a man like that.”

“I didn’t latch onto anythin’,” Steve frowned at the pilot.

“I saw the way you looked at him,” Clint cackled loudly at Steve’s frown, until Natasha reached over and whacked him upside the head.

“Just get us out of here, Clint,” Steve shook his head at the man and left the bridge, not interested in listening to his pilots’ antics. Making his way back to the catwalk, he leaned against the railing and watched quietly as Thor secured their limited cargo while Doctor Bruce Banner, their medical doctor who was with them as often as he wasn’t, carried a large red bag full of supplies into the infirmary located just off the cargo hold.

Steve was glad to be getting back into the sky, too much time in one place always made his skin itch.

  
  
\---

 

 _Qing Wa Cao De Liu Mang! -_ Frog-humping son of a bitch!

 _Hwen Dan_ \- Bastard

 _Shian Shen_ \- Mister (born before me)

 _Juh Shi Suh Mo Go Dohng Shee?_ \- What is this piece of crap?

 _Wong Ba Duhn_ \- Son of a bitch

 


	2. Tadamori Pt.II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delays - computer troubles, ugh. 
> 
> Thanks so much to my (super quick!!) beta, MxGryffindorOtaku; any remaining mistakes are on me.
> 
> Finally, thanks so much to everyone who expressed their thoughts about the translations. I've gone with the majority here and left them at the end of each chapter.

**Welcome to Tadamori!**

**One of two planets located in the small solar system of Gliese 221, Tadamori is a unique travel destination. If you are looking for a place to work on your tan, we’ve got you covered! Come and experience our two earth-that-was day sun rotations for yourself. Feeling the heat? Tadamori is the only planet wherein our cities and towns are entirely underground. And don’t forget to buy a souvenir on your way off-planet, the patterned stones dug exclusively on-site are universally known. Experience this rural way of living now!**

 

“So, what’s the new mechanic like?” Bruce asked, using his fork to break apart the protein pack that was dinner on his plate. The meal looked more like sloppy meat of questionable origin, but it served its nutritional purpose.

“Late,” Steve offered, biting into his own, equally awful looking slop.

“You going to give him a right scolding, Captain?” Clint asked, eyes full of mirth.

Steve elected to ignore such ridiculous comments and kept his eyes on his meal while his thoughts wandered.

It wasn’t really any of his business if the new mechanic didn’t want to share a meal with the rest of the crew. There wasn’t any rule on the ship that one had to eat at the same time as everyone else. It was, he decided, more out of politeness and a desire for some kind of social interaction with the rest of the crew that they had their daily dinners. If the new mechanic didn’t want to partake in that, that was his own prerogative. They’d be leaving him on Ariel anyway, he’d become nothing more than a forgotten name in a long list of mechanics on The Avenger.

“Dinners ain’t mandatory,” he bit out stiffly.

The snort that escaped Clint was more pointed than Steve was comfortable with.

Further conversation was suspended by the arrival of the subject of their conversation himself.

“I think I’m a little bit in love,” Tony said, unceremoniously throwing himself into the free seat to Steve’s right, brown eyes alight and focused on the Captain in a way that made something in Steve’s gut curl happily.

“What?” He choked out, feeling his ears beginning to heat up.

“It was completely unexpected, I wasn’t thinking I’d fall in love on your ship, but I have to thank you for picking me up anyway.”

He wasn’t talking about _Steve_ , was he?

“Your engine is a piece of beautiful work, absolutely wonderful. I kinda wanna marry it.”

_Ta Ma Duh._

The rumble of laughter that swept over his crew members earned a glare from Steve, embarrassment be damned.

“She was in a horrible state though, what have you been doing to her?” Tony continued, seemingly unaware of Steve’s brief misunderstanding and everyone else’s amusement.

He leant an elbow on the table, cushioning his chin on his palm, the other hand still free to gesture as he spoke. The fact that he was sitting at an empty plate with no clear indicators that he was actually going to get up and get himself something to eat, didn’t seem to bother him.

“The Captain and I have been working on her when we get a free moment.” Clint piped up, drawing Tony’s attention away from Steve for the first time since the man had entered the room. Tony blinked, as if just realising that there were other people in the room, and suddenly his eyes swept over the other occupants and a grin broke out over his face.

“Well, hello there people. You must be members of Steve’s crew. I’m Tony, your mechanic from here till Ariel.”

“So I’ve heard,” Natasha said, eyes evaluating the new comer.

“Tony,” Steve cut in, knowing that getting Natasha to introduce herself when she wasn’t being paid was a pain in the ass and Bruce was often sketchy about new people due to his disappearing act a couple of years ago.

“This here is Natasha Romanov, a Companion; and this is our occasional medic, Doctor Bruce Banner. You remember Clint and Thor?”

“Right,” though his voice was light, Steve couldn’t help but feel that Tony was getting more information out of just observing the rest of the crew than they wanted to share. His intelligent brown eyes were categorising those around him and filing away information.

It made Steve slightly nervous.

“Seriously, though, you two were trying to butcher my sweetheart, weren’t you?” Like the flip of a switch, Steve blinked and Tony was off on a tangent about how Clint and Steve clearly didn’t know anything about engines, and why the hell had they been trying to take care of one?

“We don’t have a full time mechanic,” Steve bit out, slightly irritated by how Tony had simply and easily cut down any and all alterations to the engine Steve had contributed to.

“Abuse, that’s what it is,” Tony bemoaned.

“Should we be concerned that you seem to have jumped to affectionate nicknames so fast?” Natasha asked, eyebrow quirked.

“Yes. No. Probably?” The grin that spread across his face was normally only seen on small children up to no good.

“So, where are you from, Tony?” Bruce finally spoke up, looking slightly amused at the man’s antics.

“Oh, here and there. The ‘verse is a big place, I like to not get tied down to one galaxy for too long,” although his body language and tone were screaming ease, something made Steve’s instincts tense with suspicion.

“I am, however, increasingly curious as to how such a group of people came together under one ships’ crew,” he added, eyes jumping from person to person.

“Enjoy your curiosity. We won’t ask you questions and you’ll refrain from asking us,” Steve cut in, seeing the others around the table tense.

“Hmm.” Tony looked at him, head slightly tilted to the side for a moment before a large grin once more covered his face.

“Where exactly does one find some gruel around here, anyway?” He changed topics, looking around as if the protein packs were going to materialise from nowhere for him.

Steve gestured to the small kitchen area where the many compartments of protein and other foodstuffs could be found.

“Just so you’re aware,” he called out as Tony moved about the area. “We need to make a short stop on Tadamori before we reach Ariel. We’ve been charged with delivering some supplies to them. I hope that isn’t a problem?”

“Not at all,” Tony grinned at him over his shoulder, a few too many teeth showing.

Steve resumed eating his meal as if nothing was wrong. The last thing he needed was for the mechanic to be sniffing around in his business, especially one that they knew nothing about.

He could be working for the Universal Security Council, for all Steve knew.

That… that would be a problem.

*

“We should only be an hour,” Steve explained as Clint and Thor finished loading the goods onto the transport bike.

“We’ll try not to miss you,” Natasha said dryly from where she was sitting on a crate of goods off to the side of the cargo hold.

“Don’t lie, you miss me already,” Clint winked at her, but she just stared blankly at him until he once more busied himself with the bike.

“Keep an eye out while we’re gone,” Steve said quietly to her, eyes flickering up to where Tony was leaning against the catwalk railing, Bruce next to him. From what Steve could tell, the mechanic had made it his mission to annoy the crap out of the doctor.

“Of course,” she nodded her head slightly, the look on her face saying that he needn’t have bothered asking as she’d have done it anyway.

Climbing onto the crate attached to the bike, Steve steadied himself as Clint revved the engine before the machine jerked forward, taking off down the ramp and onto the sandy soil of Tadamori.

Tadamori wasn’t a particularly big planet, nor one of much consequence to the rest of the ‘verse. It was, however, always hot, with the rainfall count measuring one day every few years. Due to the unrelenting heat of its two-day rotation around its sun star (Earth-that-was time), any and all structures were dug out underground; the towns identifiable only by the series of mound entrances rather than bustling streets. Rumour was that the planet had been abandoned by the USC after they realised how inhospitable it was; however - like a weed - people had raised their families and set up their lives in the heat. The planet was, however, semi-known for the stones that could be mined out from under its crust. Once dyed and polished, the stones were often used in costume jewellery due to their intricately patterned reflective surfaces.

Steve had made a point to have Clint land the ship a distance from their meeting location, just in case it went bad - a more common occurrence than he would like to admit to.

When they finally arrived, Steve immediately felt himself tense, eyes scanning the rocky, sandy area before them. There was something distinctly cage-like about where they had been informed to meet, and Steve wasn’t about to be cheated out of his money after going to all the trouble of smuggling the supplies halfway across two galaxies.

“This isn’t looking too great, Steve,” Clint said quietly as he shut off the bike, not moving from his seated position as he looked around them carefully, a bead of sweat slowly rolling down his cheek.

“Yeah, I know. Keep your gun handy,” Steve was equally as quiet as he slipped off the cargo and began to quickly and efficiently untie it and load it onto the ground.

He was just finishing up when the slightly squeaky sound of footsteps in dry sand reached his ears and, turning around all he could do was release a sigh. There was a group of Tadamorian’s, their laser guns pointed directly at himself and Clint.

Why did this always seem to happen to them?

*

“Every time! Every single fucking time! _Ma Fahn! W'rin Bu Lai,_ with you!” Clint yelled as he manoeuvred the bike towards their ship, Steve clinging onto his back and laser shots flying around them.

“Shut up!” Steve yelled over the sound of the air whipping past them, trying to aim his own gun as he was jerked around by the up and down motion of the bike flying over various small mounds in the sand.

“Don’t tell me to shut up, we’re being shot at!”’

“Clint, shut up!” Steve repeated, not having time to focus on his stroppy pilot who, he knew, lived for this kind of crap. If Clint didn’t have someone coming after him then he complained, often until someone got sick of it and either threw something heavy at him or left him on a stool in a no name bar to return to the ship the next morning with bruises and stories of fights.

“Piss off!” Clint yelled, mostly directed at the Tadamorian’s shooting at them.

Steve gritted his teeth as one of the laser shots passed by close enough to his arm for him to feel the warmth of it. Glancing where they were headed for a split moment, he was relieved to see they were approaching The Avenger quickly.

The next five minutes were lost in a blur of yelling, running, and just managing to get away from the traitorous bastards with their money.

Steve stayed tense until Clint spoke over the intercom, announcing that they had left Tadamori’s atmosphere and that the course was set for Ariel.

Leaning back against the stairs of the catwalk in the cargo hold, Steve let out a breath he had been holding since they’d landed on the planet. Safely away from the danger for now, Steve closed his eyes for a moment, his gun finally lowering and hanging from his hand casually.

“So,” a voice from above him spoke, amusement tinged. “A delivery for Tadamori, hey?”

Looking up slowly, Steve felt his suspicions resurface as his eyes rested on Tony. He looked slightly energised from the firefight and quick escape, but nowhere near as worried or frightened as a normal person would be.

In fact, Steve wasn’t actually sure why Tony had been waiting in the cargo hold for them. Why the man had seemingly pulled his gun from nowhere and been firing away with an unusual degree of accuracy for someone who claimed to be a traveller and sometimes mechanic.

Frowning, Steve tightened his hold on his own gun and stood up straight, watching Tony carefully.

“I think, Tony, that you and I need to have a little chat.”

 

 

 

 

Motherfucker - _Ta Ma Duh_

Trouble - _Ma Fahn_

Things never go smooth - _W’rin Bu Lai_

  
  



	3. Tadamori Pt.II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks so the wonderful MxGryffindorOtaku for excellent beta work! Any further mistakes are all on me.

~~**Welcome to Tadamori!** ~~

~~**One of two planets located in the small solar system of Gliese 221, Tadamori is a unique travel destination. If you are looking for a place to work on your tan, we’ve got you covered! Come and experience our two earth-that-was day sun rotations for yourself. Feeling the heat? Tadamori is the only planet wherein our cities and towns are entirely underground. And don’t forget to buy a souvenir on your way off-planet, the patterned stones dug exclusively on-site are universally known. Experience this rural way of living now!** ~~

**-**

**Attention all intergalactic personal!**

**Planet designation** **_Tadamori_ ** **is currently closed and under quarantine. All access into and out of** **_Tadamori_ ** **atmosphere is prohibited by order of the Universal Security Council as part of the governing body of the Collective Galaxies’. Any trespassers will be detained and subject to incarceration and fines in excess of two hundred thousand credits (200, 000C).**

 

Steve stared at Tony from a bed in one of the spare passenger bunks on the ship. With the help of Thor, Steve had strong-armed Tony onto a wooden chair in the room, hands tied behind his back and duct tape used to keep his extremely loud complaints silenced. There was something not quite right with the situation, a normal passenger would have been at least a little bit upset that they had left a planet amid laser shots and clearly illegal activity.

Tony, however, had seemed more amused by the whole situation then worried about it. Steve would question the man's’ sanity, but from what he had observed so far he wasn’t crazy - at least, not in a conventional way, his love of The Avenger’s engine was a definite quirk though.

“So,” Steve started slowly, eyeing the silenced man.

Tony, unable to actually speak, let out a loud huff of irritation.

“Who exactly are you, Tony? A normal person would have been at least a little concerned about the fact we were forced to leave Tadamori in such a hurry.” He leaned forward, arms resting on his knees for balance.

“But you just grabbed a gun and joined in.”

Silence stretched between them, Tony staring at him unable to talk while Steve’s mind whirled with possible answers.

“You wouldn’t happen to be working for the USC, would you, Tony?” Steve asked slowly, eyes narrowed.

It would not be good if that turned out to be the case. Steve had no desire to show up on the Universal Security Council’s radar. Nothing good would come from a dead man showing up alive. He’d be labelled as a deserter, a traitor to the supposedly peaceful government organisation that ran the universe. There was no doubt that they’d take The Avenger, incarcerate the crew and sentence Steve to death as an example of what happened to people like him.

There would be nothing Steve could do to stop them.

Better to stay under the radar, to live a lawless existence outside of USC eyes. Besides, Steve enjoyed this life more than he ever had a soldiers.

If Tony was a spy for the USC, one of those filthy people who rose in the ranks through turning in people who tried to flee, who just wanted freedom…

There would be only one option.

Reaching out, Steve ripped the duct tape from Tony’s mouth unsympathetically, ignoring the small yelp of pain the action caused.

“ _Tzao Gao!_ That fucking hurt,” Tony whined as soon as the tape was gone, his tongue darted out to wet his dry, sore lips.

“Tony,” Steve sighed in frustration as the still bound man worked his jaw, scrunching up his nose in a way Steve did _not_ find at all cute.

“Firstly, not cool man. I help you get away from laser totting crazies and you tie me to a chair in thanks? So not cool,” Tony began. “Secondly, I am not with the USC - I’m not even sure how you managed to jump to that conclusion. I’m, like, the last person who wants to be buddy-buddy with that lot. Seriously, why would I get on a ship with a crew who are clearly criminals if I was with the USC?” He paused, a thoughtful look on his face for a moment.

“Actually, yeah, okay, I can see how that wouldn’t be such a stupid idea if I worked for them. The whole, catching rotten scoundrels in the act shtick. But, no, I’m not with them, working for them, _anything_ with them.”

“Wait, what do you mean clearly criminals?” Steve broke in, immediately concerned that they had been too obvious about their actions recently.

Tony gave him one of the haughtiest looks Steve had ever seen.

“I’m sorry, were you all trying to be subtle?” His voice dripped sarcasm.

Steve clenched his jaw for a moment before focusing on the more important and pressing issues.

“Why would you be the last person to be with the USC?”

“Well…” Tony looked indecisive for a few seconds before he shrugged awkwardly in his seat. “I may or may not be on one of their wanted lists,” he admitted.

Steve tapered down on the urge to hit the idiot before him over the head and shove him in an airlock, making Tony a problem for someone else. Instead, he raised a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, praying for patience.  

“You’re saying you’re a wanted criminal on the USC listings?” He asked slowly.

“Well, yes. But you guys are too, if everything I’ve seen so far is anything to go by,” he hurried to add.

“I could turn you in and get a reward for myself.” Steve said slowly, knowing his character wouldn’t allow him to do such a thing, but anticipating the look on Tony’s face at the idea.

Sadly, Tony seemed to catch on fairly quickly to the empty threat and rather than look concerned, he grinned instead.  

“No, you won’t,” his voice had taken on a cheery tone. “I’m a loveable stray. You would never sleep again from the guilt.”

Steve felt the corner of his lips twitch upwards slightly, but any further conversation was halted by the sound of the overhead speaker sparking to life and Clint’s worried voice filling the air.

“Captain, hate to interrupt your interrogation routine, but we seem to have a USC tail from Tadamori closing in on us fast.”

_Ta Ma De._

“How in the hell did they manage to sneak up on us?” Steve demanded, standing up quickly and moving towards the door.

“Hey, wait, I’m still tied up!” Tony yelled. Steve glanced back at him.

“I don’t have time to delve into your crazy psyche right now,” Steve dismissed him, opening the door.

“No, I mean, I can help you escape,” Tony rushed to say, causing Steve to pause in the three steps he’d taken out of the room.

“Help us how?” He asked, leaning back to peer inside.

“I’m good with engines, Steve. I mean, really good. I can boost the hydraulics, get speed from her you’ve only dreamed about.”

Steve stared at him for a second, weighing his options. Tony was leaning forward in his seat, still restrained but clearly more concerned with convincing Steve to let him go than getting out himself. His brown eyes were trained on Steve’s mouth, eyebrows set in a determined line.

“I think we’ll see how we do by ourselves first, thanks.”

Decision made, Steve turned from the room and hurried past the infirmary and into the cargo hold, taking the steps up to the catwalk three at a time. He sprinted through the dining room and front corridor past the crews bunks, before bursting into the bridge. Clint was tense at the controls, madly flicking and turning switches and buttons on the panel while Natasha stood behind him, eyes locked on one of the screens showing the USC ship’s approach.

“How’s it looking?” Steve cut to the chase, eyes darting from one screen to the next.

“Not good, Captain,” Clint got out between gritted teeth.

“We need to get away, now.” Steve ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

“I’m trying,” Clint snapped.

“Do we have any way of outrunning them? They’re in a fairly dated model ship, they were mainly built for surveillance, not pursuit,” Natasha asked, eyes tracking the bulky USC ship’s image.

“If we had a stronger engine, then yeah, no problem getting away. Unfortunately, the fasted speed we’ve ever manage to coax out of The Avenger is under their maximum. We’d just get pulled up and arrested for trying to flee,” Clint groaned.

“Is there any way we can bluff our way out of a boarding?” Natasha directed her question to Steve this time.

“We don’t know how much they saw of the drop. They might be speculating and we’d be fine. Or they may have seen what went down and are planning on boarding and arresting all of us. How long until they’re on us?” 

“ETA five minutes,” Clint reported, squinting at one of the screens critically.

Steve frowned in annoyance as he realised what his only option was.

Leaning forward so that he could reach the intercom button, he jabbed it with more force than was strictly necessary.

“Thor, get Tony down to the ships engine. Tony, if you can’t get the engine up and running at full capacity in less than five minutes, I’ll shove you in an airlock and leave you in deep space myself. _Dohn Luh Mah?_ ”

Steve was almost positive he could hear the offended squawk all the way from the bridge.

“Are you sure about this?” Natasha asked, eyeing Steve from her tense position just behind Clint’s pilot chair.

“Not at all. But we’re about to find out if Tony is working for the USC after all.”

The tension in the bridge was thick in the air, and Steve could feel every one of his muscles straining under it. He clenched his firsts at his sides, unable to do much more than watch the approaching USC ship on the small screen, the large window at the front of the ship showed only the darkness of space with its never ending pinpricks of light.

“Three minutes,” Clint murmured, unnaturally still in his chair.

Time seemed to tick by slowly, the ship getting closer and closer to them.

“Incoming from the USC ship.” Clint glanced back at Steve, looking for permission to play it.

“Accept,” Steve nodded, jaw tight.

“Attention unauthorised ship. You have been detected leaving the quarantined planet, Tadamori. Please kill your engines and prepare for boarding.” An official voice sounded out through the bridge.

“ _Ta Ma De_.” Clint muttered, hand tightening where it had been resting on one of the levers.

Steve closed his eyes in anger and took in a deep breath to stop himself from cursing aloud. When he’d been offered the contract to bring the goods to Tadamori, he hadn’t heard anything at all to tip him off that the planet had been quarantined. If he had known, if he’d heard even a whisper that the planet had been shut down by the USC, he never would have entered the same galaxy as it. Nothing good came from venturing near quarantined planets, they were always patrolled by USC ships just waiting for people to try and test the law.

Opening his eyes, he glanced at Natasha and Clint, their equally surprised faces confirmed that neither of them had known about the planets status either.

If Steve ever bumped into the people who had hired them for this job again, he was going to give them a reminder to tell their clients all the details. A reminder that would come from flesh and serve as a message to anyone in the future who might try to trick him and his crew into taking such a stupid, risky job.

“Captain?” Natasha asked quietly.

“It’s all down to Tony now,” Steve muttered, hoping that his leap of faith in the other man was going to pay off.

“Repeating: halt! This is the USC, you are suspected of illegal trading on the quarantined planet, Tadamori. Station your ship and prepare for boarding,” the official voice sounded over the intercom again.

“Captain, do you have something to hold onto?” Tony’s voice suddenly interrupted further announcements from their unwelcome followers.

“Have you found a way to increase our speed?” Steve asked, finger pressing down on the intercom as he spoke.

“Yeah, yeah, _K_ _uài qù hen yuan de dì f_ ā _ng_. Tell your pilot to engage the forward motion thrusters on my count. We’re going to leave that USC ship in our space dust.” Tony sounded positively gleeful, and Steve had a moment to wonder again just who, exactly, he had on his ship.

Steve caught Clint’s eye and the man nodded, hand resting on the lever with flexing fingers.

Another USC message rang over the ships speakers.

“Attention unauthorised ship. You will halt all forward motion generators and wait to be boarded. You are under suspicion of illegal trading on a quarantined planet. Don’t do anything _stupid_.”

Steve privately thought that the last bit was a little uncalled for, they hadn’t actually done anything stupid - yet.

He reached out and pressed the communication link button on the control panel so that he could send a polite reply to the USC ship. 

“Attention USC ship, this is the Captain of The Avenger speaking. We have done nothing to warrant a boarding of government sanctioned soldiers. We’ll just be on our way,” Steve sent out and released the button, ignoring the soft snort of laughter from Natasha.

It was no secret among the crew of The Avenger that no one amongst them liked the USC. They all had their own stories - their own difficult histories when dealing with the government sanctioned group. If Steve was being honest, he was a little surprised the ship hadn’t been tagged by now, in one of those ‘capture first, ask questions later’ kind of setups.  

“Captain, any attempt to resist boarding or trying to flee will result in an automatic arrest warrant.”

“Yeah, not today.” Steve couldn’t keep the small smile off of his face. He’d sooner see his ship in ruins then allow the USC to get their hands on his crew.  

“Pilot, we are good to go, push the damn lever!” Tony suddenly sounded over the intercom.

Steve had just enough time to grab hold of the lip of the control panel as Clint shoved the lever forwards and the whole ship jerked and suddenly they were flying through the darkness.

Clint let out a whoop of excitement, echoed faintly from the other side of the ship where Tony was. On the screens around them, the USC ship was quickly left behind as they flew through the darkness.

Steve couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle himself, relief mixing with disbelief that they had managed to get away.  

They’d gotten paid, evaded the USC and it seemed that - at least for now - their mechanic had proven himself to be the best they’d ever come across.

 

 

 

 

Oh, crap - _Tzao Gao_

Fuck - _Ta Ma De_

Do we have an understanding? - _Dohn luh mah?_

Go far away very fast: _K_ _uài qù hen yuan de dì f_ ā _ng_  

 


	4. Ariel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many thanks to the wonderful MxGryffindorOtaku for excellent beta work! Any further mistakes are all on me.

**Welcome to Ariel!**

**The heart of culture and art for the Core Planets, Ariel has been awarded the most beautiful planet in the ‘verse for the last twenty-three years. The always blue skies and signature style of white pillar architecture, have led many a poet and songwriter to call this planet home. Come and visit the playground of the rich and famous of the ‘verse, while attending one of the numerous playhouses and concert halls.**

 

Steve hated to admit it, but Tony had proven to be much more useful than he’d ever thought the man might be. He was acutely aware that the mechanic was the only reason the crew had managed to get away from the clutches of the USC. That extra boost of energy had been just what they’d needed. The fact that the ship was still operating at the same excellent speed days later, meant that they’d managed to arrive on Ariel six whole hours earlier than expected.

“He’s good, Steve,” Clint said quietly as he brought the ship in towards the sapphire planet’s atmosphere.

“He’s a potential liability,” Natasha countered from her usual devil’s advocate position.

“We could use a full-time mechanic - you’ve always said so,” Clint argued.

“We don’t know anything about him.”

“He might not even agree,” Steve cut in before Clint could come up with another argument.

Steve had been thinking about asking Tony to stay on as their mechanic ever since they'd escaped the USC ship. It was the first time they’d encountered someone who actually got on passably with the rest of the crew, and was good at mechanics. The argument between Natasha and Clint cemented the seriousness of the situation, as it was clear the others had noticed as well. It would have been one thing if only Steve had been aware of it, he’d been looking after all. But, the fact that others had also noticed how easily Tony fit into the ship’s daily life…

Steve was going to have to make a decision, and fast.

It was only when they’d parked the ship at the main port in Ariel, Steve finally came to a decision as the crew stood in the cargo hold, the ramp slowly lowering.

“Let’s not stay too long. Go out, get what you need and restock, then back on the ship,” Steve told his crew, eyes darting around looking for the one man not part of it.

There was a murmur of agreement before the ramp hit the ground and the others departed.

Walking back into the belly of the ship, Steve finally found his wayward passenger in the engine room, up to his elbows in the bullet shaped engine itself.

“Tony?” Steve called out curiously.

“Yeah, yep, I’m going. I just, the pressure belt has begun to deteriorate and I was like, you guys will be dead in the sky if you don’t get it replaced while you’re here. It was alright while it was being used, but now that we’ve stopped, the restarting process will seriously tear it up and that would suck. I mean, I won’t be here so, no problem for me, but…” Tony rambled, yanking on something a few times before a short, flat cord came free. Steve could see how frayed it had become along the sides even from where he was standing.

“Right,” Steve said lamely.

“So, yeah.” Tony walked over to him and, with only a moment's hesitation, held out the pressure belt to Steve with a small smile. Steve automatically took it.

“It’s been… shiny. Thanks for the lift, been ages since I was on such a good ship.” He suddenly grinned, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly. “You’re crew’s okay, too, I suppose.”

Steve couldn’t help the snort that escaped him.

“See you around, Captain.” Tony gave him a small, two fingered salute and reached over to pick up his bag, which Steve hadn’t even noticed was sitting on the floor by his feet. Then the man brushed past him, the air shifting as he made his way to the cargo hold.

Steve stood silent for a long moment before letting out a curse.

“ _Lao Tien Fu_.”

Turning quickly, he rushed after the surprisingly light-footed mechanic and managed to catch up to him on the catwalk in the cargo hold.

“How’d you like to keep us from ever being dead in the sky?” Steve blurted out, much louder than he’d intended to.

He took a second to be thankful that the rest of the crew weren’t around to mock him as he embarrassed himself.

Tony stopped, turning half towards him, a surprised look on his face.

“What?” He asked, blinking.

“You clearly know your way around an engine,” Steve started, nerves starting to tighten in his gut. “We haven’t been able to find anyone who’s close to as good as you. And you didn’t freak out about the whole criminal activities thing we have going on,” Steve chuckled humorlessly at his own words.

Tony raised an eyebrow.

“That's a seriously difficult criteria for a person to match up to,” sarcasm laced his words.

“Look, I’m asking if you want to join this crew. How about,” Steve paused slightly, not believing he was going to so much trouble for someone he barely knew.

“Take the next few hours to decide. We’re not leaving Ariel until nightfall. Come back then if you want to be part of this ship, but if not, no hard feelings. I’m sure you’ll keep our extracurricular activities to yourself?” He tapered off in a question.

Even if Tony did decide to snitch on them to the authorities, Steve was confident that he could have his crew and ship out of the port quick enough to prevent them from being captured.

“You’re actually serious, aren’t you?” Tony asked, appearing baffled at why anyone would be offering him a position in a crew.

“I am. We could use someone like you,” Steve nodded slightly, refusing to examine why he was pushing this so hard. Even if Clint had said the man was a good addition to the crew, it was ultimately up to Steve to keep them all in the sky with limited threats of incarceration.

“I’ll think about it,” Tony finally said, when the silence between them had become awkward.

“Okay.”

What else could Steve really say? It was now up to Tony, who turned away from him and continued to walk down the catwalk stairs, across the cargo bay and down the ramp into the Ariel sunlight.

Steve followed at a more sedate pace, shielding his eyes when he finally reached the ramp and the brilliant light from the two suns that Ariel orbited hit him.

Ariel was a beautiful planet, of that no one in the entire ‘verse would argue. It was the capital of art and culture for the Core planets, and boasted some of the most beautiful architecture that Steve had ever seen. The towering buildings were all carved in white stone, with massive windows with real glass creating a reflective surface that made them shine.

Before Steve the cobblestone streets held only foot traffic, all types of transportation strictly limited to the various ships that filled the pearlescent blue skies. The people that walked the streets were almost as beautiful as their surroundings, the light bouncing off the various gemstones and baubles that they had adorned themselves with. Ariel was the playground for the educated rich and famous of the ‘verse.

Eyes still squinting slightly, Steve looked around to find Tony, heart jumping slightly when he spotted him turning into a narrow space between buildings, off the main pathway.

“Thor,” Steve called out to the large man who had yet to wander off too far.

“Ay?”

“Watch the ship for me, would you? I need to see to something,” Steve waved a hand towards The Avenger as he quickly moved down the ramp, eyes trained on where he had seen Tony disappear.

“The ship? But I was to engage in barter with the city folk,” Thor complained, but Steve ignored him, knowing that he would do as asked despite the complaints.

"Oh, and hold onto this for me," he shoved the frayed pressure belt into the large mans hands as he passed him. 

Tony proved to be more difficult to follow than Steve had anticipated. He was slippery, taking advantage of other people as distractions, and just generally very well practice in the art of stealth. It made Steve even more curious about what the story behind his potentially new mechanic might be.

Finally, after a ridiculously convoluted trek around various alleyways and through a couple of stores entirely, Tony slipped into a small tavern with little signage and a distinct air of lower class, despite the relatively expensive taste most of Aerial’s occupants and visitors demanded.

Following the man into the tavern, Steve recognised the local hangout of the planets criminal element immediately. Honestly, Steve spent way too much of his time in places like this. He was, however, curious about what Tony would be doing in such a place. He already knew that Tony wasn’t exactly a law abiding citizen of the ‘verse. However, watching from one of the many darkly lit corners of the tavern as the man slinked up to the bar itself and leaned against it casually, eyes looking over the various offers of alcohol on the shelves before him, Steve wondered just how illegal Tony’s activities were.

A large, fat man suddenly sat down in the seat before Steve, momentarily blocking his view of Tony and causing him to curse quietly. The man gave him an unimpressed look and grunted as though asking if Steve wanted to make something of it, but the Captain moved himself before he drew any more attention. Instead, he leaned against one of the screens placed about the room, creating a sense of privacy for those who wanted to conduct a bit of business with their drink.

Tony was still at the bar, however he had attracted the attention of the bartender and the two were leaning close together, appearing for all the world as if Tony was asking for a certain drink over the low murmur of the crowd.

Steve wasn’t fooled for a moment, his well practiced eyes catching sight of the small slip of paper Tony palmed off to the man over the countertop, disguised as a friendly slap on the shoulder as he pulled back with a small smile.

The bartender leaned back as well, hand slipping casually into his pocket before he set about making a drink for Tony which he deposited on the countertop before moving away to serve someone else.

Tony spent the next twenty minutes nursing his drink, taking only the occasional sip, before he finally stood, settled his tab, and moved towards the exit.

Steve stood up straight from his slouch to follow him, when suddenly the fat man from before was in front of him, eyes holding a glassy quality from the numerous drinks he’d been downing while Steve had been watching Tony. The mans’ face was flushed and he poked a pudgy finger into Steve’s chest.

“The fuck are you hanging around me for, _Hwen Dan_?” He snarled out, as if Steve had personally gone out of his way to offend the moron.

Steve sighed, knowing that this was going to end in a fight and having no way to get out of it.

It seemed Tony would be getting away after all.

*

Having completely lost sight of Tony, Steve headed back to his ship.

Thor grinned widely at his arrival from where he had set up a beach chair on the ramp, complete with a yellow parasol to keep the light of the two suns’ from burning his skin.

With a jerk of his head and a brief request for the man to get a new pressure belt, Thor was up and off into the crowds, leaving the seat free for Steve to sit down and wait with the ship for the rest of his crew to get back.

Over the course of the next hour the others had trickled back, Bruce with a large bag, almost bursting at the seams with what Steve guessed would be medical equipment and supplies, no doubt liberated from somewhere. Clint had turned up with a large grin on his face, no other bags, but the definite smell of the beer the planet Achernar, or _Shui Wei Yi_ , was known for. Natasha had sauntered out of the crowd, her clothes as perfect as when she’d left, a small smile lurking at the corner of her lips suggesting she had been up to something that she wouldn’t be sharing with the rest of them. A normal look on her face, after a planet visit. Thor, too, returned victoriously with the new pressure belt, though the boisterous grin matched the small pouch he kept touching at his hip, no doubt holding something of value that he had managed to persuade someone to part with.

Steve packed up the chair and parasol while the rest of them got back onto the ship, laughing and joking about their recent exploits. Steve stared into the mass of people, wondering if he would see Tony again, if the man would return and refuse his offer, or agree to join the crew.

“Is he travelling with us?” Natasha finally asked, sliding up to stand beside Steve. Although the others were still in the cargo hold, Steve could hear them quiet down at her question, curious.

“Doesn’t look like it,” Steve said after a moment's pause, eyes still wandering over the people outside the ship, searching for the dark haired man.

“Let’s get going then, we’re burning time,” Natasha moved away from him, telling Clint to get up to the bridge and start the preflight routine.

Steve didn’t bother to mention that they didn’t exactly have a goal in mind for where they were going next. They didn’t have any current jobs and were off towards the outer planets in the hopes that they’d pick up something to do along the way. It wasn’t exactly a time sensitive plan, but Natasha had never been one to wait around for anyone else when there was no immediate benefit for her.

Steve sighed and finally gave up, turning to step into the cargo hold properly and reached out for the control panel that would allow him to raise the ramp and seal the ship up.

“You’re not about to leave with me, are you, Captain?” A voice came from behind him and Steve could feel a small smile break over his face for a moment before he forced a frown and turned.

“Crew members will be on time or they’ll get left on planet,” he said, pointedly.

Tony laughed at him, ratty bag slung over his shoulder again as he stood at the top of the ramp, one step away from being in the ship itself.

“So, you’ve decided?” Steve asked, fairly confident in guessing what Tony had decided.

“Yeah, I always wanted to see the stars.” Tony snickered, taking that step into the cargo hold and, just like that, The Avenger had a mechanic.

  
  
  
  
  
  


 

 

 _Lao Tien Fu -_ Oh, God

 _Hwen Dan -_ Bastard

 _Shui Wei Yi -_ First Star of Crooked Running Water (an actual planet)

  



	5. Space

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's been a while... apologies, guys. Here's thanking you, if you're still following along. 
> 
> All mistakes are my own.

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They had retreated to the Outer Planet sector of the ‘verse after the excitement of Ariel. Steve always found the close eye the USC kept on the Core Planets’ to be far too curious for his comfort. It had been a bit of a travel, but they’d managed to make it to the far side of the Outer Planets in just under two weeks. The only interest the USC had in these rocks had been at their initial discovery and colonisation, it had been a long time since even their names had been spoken in the governments' halls. These were the planets that were poor in all ways possible; economic, social, and quality of life. Many of the planets were visited only by illegal traders, and their version of police was as corrupt as they come.

Steve had been hopeful that they’d be able to catch a wave or two from planets as they passed them, any kind of job that would not only offer them some money, but give them a sense of direction. Drifting was all well and good, but not a way to feed a crew or gain a sense of purpose. He was beginning to think that they’d have to actually stop off on the planets themselves to get some work, when they came across something else drifting in space.

The thing about the universe was that it was vast, vast to the point that new things were still being discovered for those who cared, which was surprisingly few given how obsessed with discovery the people of Earth-that-was had been. But, after so many years of space travel and colonisation, the news of a new planet settled or a dark corner of the universe finally being explored just didn’t excite people like it used to.

“Is that what I think it is?” Steve asked, leaning forward in the bridge, as if that would get him a clearer view of the large ship spinning slowly nose-to-tail before them in the darkness.

“Looks like their stabilisers have been damaged,” Clint muttered, hands working over the controls and causing a small screen to light up amongst the various screens before him.

“That’s a settlement ship, Captain,” Natasha muttered from her usual perch, leaning on the back of Clint’s chair.

“Scan it for lifeforms or distress signals,” Steve ordered, a sick feeling beginning to grow in his stomach.

In a universe this size, if a ship found itself near the Outer Planets, and something went wrong, the likelihood of them receiving aid was little to none. Waves only transmitted so far, and not even the most advanced technology could get a message from out here to someone in the Core Planets. It was a chance a ship had to take, when they went out, they might end up dead in the sky and the only option left to them was either to take the crews own lives or slowly starve to death.

“No transmissions’ of any kind, Captain. The ship appears to be running on minimal energy,” Clint frowned at the unusual reading on the screen to his right.

“Perhaps it was abandoned?” Natasha offered, though her tone of voice was hardly reassuring.

Steve remained silent for a moment as he stared at the lazily spinning ship through the large window before him.

“Well, let’s get on board and have a look,” he finally said, rolling his shoulders before pressing the intercom button.

“We’ve got an empty ship coming up on us. Let’s have everyone in the cargo bay so we can have a look to see if there’s anything salvageable on it for us.”

Releasing the button, he clapped Clint on the shoulder.

“Get us hooked up, then come down and help out.”

Clint nodded, slowly pressing a lever upwards as The Avenger approached the ship.

Steve made his way through the hallways and down the stairs into the cargo hold, heading over to the airlock that would connect to the other ship with Natasha at his heels. Thor was already there, pulling on a space suit as was custom for unknown ships, one never knew if their oxygen levels were holding steady until they’d physically stepped onboard. 

“What kind of ship is it?” Tony called out behind where Steve had been heading for his own space suit.

Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that Tony had emerged from the small corridor that lead to the infirmary and spare passenger dorms, one of which was now officially Tony’s room. Bruce was standing a step behind the mechanic, and Steve realised that they’d both come from the infirmary together, a common place to find Tony when he wasn’t crooning sweet nothings at The Avenger’s engine.

Once Tony had joined their crew, the man had made a point to be friendlier with the rest of the ship’s occupants. Bruce, in particular, seemed to be the focus of Tony’s endeavours and Steve often found the doctor with an almost fondly exasperated look on his face while Tony talked a mile a minute, following him around like his personal shadow.

Steve wasn’t entirely willing to examine his own feelings on that particular development.

“It looks like a settlement ship,” Steve said, stepping into the suit and pulling it up around him.

“Huh, that’s unusual,” Bruce muttered.

“Yes, so be on standby in case there are any survivors still on board. The scan was negative, but you know how sometimes it can be wrong if the life signs are unusual or few in number,” Steve said, adjusting the suit just as there was a muffled thud from the airlock, signalling their connection with the other ship had been established.

“Ready?” Steve looked over to Thor who was securing his bubbled helmet in place, a large grin stretching across his face as he raised a hand, thumb upwards.

“Let us venture forth!” Steve heard the duel echo of him in the cargo hold and through the small mic built into the helmet as he slid his own over his head.

Securing the helmet in place and taking one of the laser guns Natasha held out to them both, Steve pulled the heavy airlock door open and the two stepped into the small room. They closed the door behind them securely, only a series of small square windows showing them the remainder of their crew on The Avenger, before Steve reached for the other ships door and opened it cautiously.

It was dimly lit in what appeared to be a hallway, a settlement ship having no need for airlocks. Before them shadows lurked in every corner of the hexagonally shaped hall, the dim blue glow of backup lighting all that allowed them to see.

“Let’s see if we can find the main control room, we might be able to restore the oxygen levels if nothing else,” Steve directed to Thor who nodded mutely, eyes trained on their surroundings as he hefted his gun.

Steve cautiously moved throughout the ship, taking note of the strangeness that only increased the further they moved into it. They passed through a dining room, meals still sitting on tables half eaten, as though someone was coming back for them. They peered into what appeared to be sleeping quarters and saw beds half made, a young child’s teddy bear laying on its side on the floor. They made a few more turns before they reached a securely locked door.

“Okay, you ready?” Steve asked, looking back at Thor who raised his gun to point at the door, ready for anything that may await them on the other side.

Reaching into one of the pockets of his space suit, Steve pulled forth a small, rectangular piece of metal that had set him back a few hundred credits on the black market. Attaching it to the lock, he pushed the small button on the side of it and took a hurried few steps back. Nothing happened for a moment before there was a buzzing of electricity and a crackling sound filled the silence around them before the satisfying clicking of a lock. Electronic lock picks were damn expensive, but very useful for those who walked the grey side of the moral compass. Steve retrieved the lock pick before shoving the door open, gun raised wearily for anyone that might attack them. 

Nothing happened.

Stepping into the room slowly, Steve realised that they had come across the bridge, the control panel for the ship laid out before them with only a few lights glowing, most screens showing a static grey fuzz, and the glass before them holding the empty sky of space. Steve felt grateful to Clint at that moment, that the pilot had used The Avenger to stabilise the ship so that it wasn't still spinning. 

Stepping over to the control panel itself, Steve looked over it for a moment before a familiar looking switch caught his attention and he reached out and flicked it. The lights of the ship flickered on properly, the hum of the engine filled the silence, and the oxygen regulators began to recycle the stale air around the ship once more.

“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone here. Let’s go back to the ship and get everyone ready to come over and scavenge what we can,” Steve said, turning back to Thor and allowing his gun to fall harmlessly to his side.

“Ay, there are many things that might be of value on this ship that I saw as we walked through. Tis strange though, as if the occupants have simply vanished into the Dark,” Thor frowned, an expression not normally found on the jovial man’s face.

“I agree, something happened here. But that doesn’t mean we can’t reap some kind of benefit from stumbling across the ship now,” Steve said, gesturing for Thor to leave the room and begin the trek back to the rest of the crew.

“Besides,” he tried to inject a hint of humour into his voice. “I hate these helmets, let’s get back to the ship, the air filtration units should have made this vessel habitable again by then.”

*

“I can’t believe how stocked they were, on everything,” Bruce muttered to Steve, hands mechanically packing up the medical equipment and supplies that he had found to transport back to The Avenger.

“It looks like they were going out to settle on a new planet. They have everything a new ecosystem would need to survive; medicine, food, families of people,” Steve looked around critically. The whole situation wasn’t sitting well with him. He just couldn’t work out where the people had gone.

“Steve,” Natasha’s voice cut through any further conversation with Bruce, and Steve moved over to where she was loitering at the entrance to the medical bay. She stepped back into a small hallway, probably housing rooms for the families, and Steve followed her. She glanced around to make sure that they were alone, before speaking.

“The escape pods are still here, Steve,” she hissed quietly, body tense.

Steve felt his unease increase. He had hoped that the pods would be gone, that there had been a problem and the people had gotten out.

“There’s no sign of scavengers or pirates. No indication that the USC changed their minds and ordered the people on the ship to return via one of their own vehicles. I even checked the logs, they’re completely normal until they just stop. Everything on this ship has suddenly stopped,” she stared at him intently, as if he knew the answer.

He was beginning to think that he might.

There was one being in the ‘verse that all the evidence was beginning to point towards, a being so horrific that for people of the Core Planets it was nothing but the stuff of nightmares and horror stories.

A humanoid creature that was once recognisable, who went mad from staring into the darkness of space, and violent from exposure of primitive engine's radioactive generators. They were said to slice up their own skin, shove bits of metal into it to disfigure it further, then cannibalise their fellow man. They would hunt in packs on their ships, trapping victims before raping them, eating their flesh and then skinning them to make clothes. If the victim was lucky, they’d even do it in that order.

“I’m going to check the storage holds, keep everyone on task. I don’t want to linger here,” Steve said to Natasha, ignoring her tightening jaw when he didn’t share his suspicions.

Steve moved quickly throughout the ship, glancing into every room as he passed, making sure there was nothing there and that it wasn’t what he was searching for.

Finally, after a few minutes, he pushed open a door and found the crates of supplies he’d been looking for. A glance told him they had hardly been used, the ship hadn’t even been near its destination. Stepping into the room, he looked around carefully, the small laser gun he’d pulled from the waist holster he wore held tightly in his hand once more.

He was almost convinced he was wrong, that his theory was nothing more than that, a theory. His mind turned to the amount of credits they’d get from the food supplies, how useful the planets in the Outer Core would find them, when he idly glanced upward and immediately felt bile rise in the back of his throat.

 _Reavers._  

A giant cluster hung from the centre of the room, the storage hold perfect for such a display due to its high ceilings. A huge chain, links almost the size of his hand, was wrapped around the numerous disfigured bodies hanging there. It mostly looked like large chunks of meat, blood since dried, no skin to be seen, but clear evidence of brutal torture having been applied to the bodies before death.

Yet, there was almost something artful about the way in which they’d been displayed, that the killers had been careful to put the most mutilated of the bodies on show.

Steve forced himself to swallow the bile in his mouth and quickly stepped back out of the room, he put his gun back in the holster before he pulled the door shut firmly on the thousands of credits worth of food. Without another thought he headed back to where the rest of his crew had been scavenging.

“Captain, everything okay?” Clint asked as soon as Steve was in sight.

He knew he must look pale, possibly even slightly green after the stomach-turning sight.

“Get what you have now and let’s leave as fast as possible.”

“What’s going on?” Tony asked as he came towards them down another hallway, looking a little worse for ware and totting a cart of machinery he’d obviously liberated from the engine room.

“We’re leaving,” Steve said, voice firm.

“Seriously? But, there’s so much stuff here,” Tony gestured with one hand, the other still holding the handle of the cart.

“ _Bi Jweh_ , Tony,” Steve glared at him, daring him to say anything more.

Tony, seeming to realise the futility of arguing this time, rolled his eyes and started moving towards the airlock.

Steve had just turned back to Natasha to ask where she’s last seen Thor, when there was a dull thud, followed by Tony letting out a loud squawk before a crashing sound filled the air. Spinning around, hand resting on his gun holster instinctively, Steve let out an exasperated sigh at the sight of Tony sprawled over a luggage rack, the large suitcase on the ground he’d tripped over peaked out of the bottom rung below him.

“Ow,” Tony let out a pitiful noise as he pushed himself up, Clint snorting loudly in amusement. Steve turned back to Natasha, the man clearly hadn’t really hurt himself and Steve was intent on getting out of there as fast as possible.

“Natasha, do you know where Thor is?” He asked.

“He was unloading what he’d found thus far onto The Avenger.”

“Okay, everyone, let’s get going,” Bruce, Clint and Natasha all nodded and, holding what they had already found, they headed back without argument. Steve too began moving forward before glancing back at Tony, the unusual silence alerting him to a potential problem.

Tony was still leaning over the luggage where he’s tripped before, body oddly tense and Steve’s already whirling mind immediately jumped to all manner of conclusions before he forced himself to calm down and think rationally.

“Move out, Tony,” his voice was one of command, but Tony rarely listened to it without some resistance.

When Tony still failed to make any indication that he’d even heard Steve, the Captain moved towards him, worried there might actually be something physically wrong. People carried strange things in their luggage, had something sharp caught Tony when he’d fallen and he was silent because he didn’t want the rest of the crew to know?

“Tony?” Steve reached out, hand barely brushing his shoulder before Tony spun around, hands slipping behind his back and an overly large smile upon his face.

“Right, yes, let’s jet,” he almost seemed to dance away from Steve’s reach and, before anything more could be said, Tony disappeared back towards The Avenger.

Confused, but willing to chalk it up to Tony’s eccentric personality, Steve took hold of the cart handle Tony had suddenly abandoned and headed back to his ship.

The sooner they got away from this vessel, the better.

_*_

Steve only relaxed when the other ship had finally disappeared into the Dark. Clint had remained remarkably silent as he’d steered The Avenger away, exercising his limited tact into not asking about Steve's sudden change of heart. One thing Steve knew his crew collectively agreed upon, was that their Captain always trued to act in their best interests. While he was sure that someone - probably Natasha - would come fishing for answers at some point, for now they were amenable to following Steve's orders without question. Steve paused for an extra few seconds to lay a thankful hand upon his pilot’s shoulder before he left to check on the rest of the crew.

It had been a while since something had shaken Steve so much. But, he guessed that radiation mutated, cannibalistic sub-humans would do that.

Natasha was playing a game of Tall Card with Bruce and Thor, the trio most likely betting ship chores as their currency. As usual Natasha was winning, however Bruce wasn’t too far behind her. If Thor had any sense he would have backed out by now, but Steve was sure the man would end up with the majority of the ships' chores for the next Earth-that-was month.

Heading for the cargo hold, he guessed that Tony would either be in the cargo bay looking through his liberated toys, or in the engine room putting said new toys to use. Despite the oddity that was Tony and his unknown past, the man was an extremely good mechanic and genuinely cared about the ships engine. Steve would have wondered if there was some kind of strange fetish going on, if Tony didn’t flirt consistently with anything breathing and mechanical alike.

Looking over the catwalk in the cargo bay he didn't spot the man, so Steve descended the steps and continued on to the engine room. The closer he got, however, the more worried he began to feel. Tony seemed to always be talking, never shutting up even when everyone was telling him to. As a result, it was quite common to hear him well before he was seen by the rest of the crew.

Up ahead, however, there was only the hum of the engine.

Stepping lightly now, his soldier training kicking in, Steve slowly peered into the room.

Tony wasn’t in his usual place of poking around the engine, or fiddling with other mechanical systems. He wasn’t sprawled out on the floor reading like Steve had seen on a handful of occasions. He wasn’t even doing that ridiculous dance Steve had unintentionally walked in on him doing three days ago, the music Tony’s hips swayed to only heard in his own head.

Instead, the man was tucked into the corner of one of the honeycomb-shaped walls, his legs folded up to his chest and arms wrapped around them. A well-worn book was sitting on the floor before him, its cover showing the wear and tear of time. 

Steve could only see Tony’s eyes from where he stood, the rest of his face hidden within his arms and legs. But he looked upset, staring at the book before him like it held the answers to the universe and none of them were good.

“Tony?” Steve called out, voice just audible over the engine.

The man didn’t even twitch, as if he hadn’t heard Steve at all.

“Tony?” He tried again, voice louder this time as he stepped into the room.

It did the trick and Tony tilted his head slightly, looking up at Steve with a tired expression. Something about Tony’s whole countenance appeared exhausted all of a sudden and in the back of his mind, Steve wondered if Tony had been getting enough sleep.

“Hi, Steve,” Tony said.

“What’re you doing in here?” Steve asked, taking a step closer.

“Just thinking,” Tony’s voice grew soft, eyes sliding back to the book on the floor.

“About?”

Tony shrugged awkwardly, seeming to slip back into whatever trance-like state he had been in when Steve had first appeared.

They remained silent, the hum of the engine the only sound around them. Steve felt adrift, not sure what to do in this situation. He’d never seen Tony act like this before, but then Steve hardly knew the man. Tony had been with them for such a short amount of time, there was no way that he had seen every layer of the other man. Something about that thought really pissed him off and he was just about to open his mouth and try to get some actual answers out of him, when Tony sat up slightly, a determined look settling on his face.

“Hey, Steve,” he didn’t look at the Captain as he spoke, eyes still locked on the book. “I know it’s a bit out of our way, but I really need to go to Timbetpal. The sooner, the better.”

“That’s in the opposite direction of where we’re heading, Tony,” Steve crossed his arms over his chest, frustration hiding his confusion.

Timbetpal? Why would Tony want to go to a planet like that?

“Look,” he finally tore his eyes away from the book and looked at Steve, mouth drawn hard with determination. “If you can’t swing it, no problem. Just drop me off on the nearest planet with an intergalactic shipping station and I’ll make my own way.”

Steve stared at him for a moment, slightly surprised by how serious Tony was.

“I thought you liked it on my ship,” he said, feeling defensive.

“This isn’t about if I like your ship or not, Steve. I need to get to Timbetpal, and soon.”

“Why do you need to go there so badly?” Steve raised an eyebrow.

“Personal reasons,” was the lacklustre reply.

“You want me to turn the ship around, to go over four days out of our way, just so you can do something you won’t even tell me about on a tiny little planet where we won’t even be able to get a job? You must be _Feng Le_ ,” Steve snorted, unamused.

“Steve. I promise you that I rarely ask for favours, and it’s unfortunate that I need to do so when we’ve only known each other for a little while. But, I need to get to Timbetpal. I _will_ get to Timbetpal, with or without your help,” Tony stood as he spoke, his body unconsciously preparing itself for a fight in the heavy way he set his feet and his hands clenched into loose fists at his sides.

Steve stared at him a moment longer, conflicted.

However, when it really came down to it, he’d known what his answer would be from the moment Tony had made his request.

“I really hope you’re being honest with me about the favours. You’re going to be on cargo cleaning duty for the next Earth-that-was month for this.”

Tony blinked at him in genuine surprise. It appeared that, while he’d wanted to ask, he’d been expecting Steve to reject his request and dump him on whatever the closest planet was.

Letting out an exasperated breath, Steve turned to leave, only for Tony’s quiet call of his name to stop him.

Looking back, he saw that Tony had relaxed slightly, his face a bizarre mix of thankful and sad.

“Thank you, Steve. I really appreciate this,” Tony said.

Giving a small nod of his head, though he still had no idea why they were suddenly going to be heading to Timbetpal with such urgency, Steve left the engine room and headed once more for the front of the ship. He had to tell Clint that they needed to change course if they wanted to reach the planet with any kind of expedience.

 

 

 

 ---

 

 

 

 _Bi Jweh –_ Shut up

 _Feng Le_ – Crazy, go crazy

 


	6. Timbetpal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoy getting to know a little bit about Tony's past.  
> All errors are on me.

**Welcome to Timbetpal**

**A small planet just outside the Core Planet radius, the rich soil and regular rainfall have helped to make the entire planet into one large farm. Ever wanted to experience farming life at its most basic, visit Timbetpal and witness the process from germination to mastication. Discover the organic origins of your food today!**

 

“Remind me again why we went days out of our way to land on this inconsequential planet? Only to then play hide and seek with our mysterious mechanic who – if you’ll recall – refused to tell us why we needed to stop on this shitty planet in the first place,” Clint grumbled from where he was crouched around the corner of one of the simple, wooden houses on what classified as Main Street on Timbetpal.

“It’s called knowing your enemy,” Natasha said dryly.

The baleful look Clint shot her was almost worth listening to the duos conversation. However, Steve had more pressing things to concern himself with, namely why it was that Tony had insisted on stopping here and where he was going now.

Timbetpal was one of the few planets that fell into a limbo of not being far enough away to be classified as an Outer Plant, but not close enough to reap the benefits of a Core Plant’s status. As a result, it had becoming nothing more than a simple faming planet, with small towns located sporadically between the large hectares of fields of wheat, corn and sugar. The town they’d landed near was nothing more than a single main street, the few people who did live in town occupied the space above the shops, the farmers themselves living on their properties. The rarity of visitors made them stick out, the locals mostly peered at them with confusion, no doubt wondering if they’d accidently gotten lost and landed on the planet by mistake.

As soon as they’d landed and he was able, Tony had been down the ramp and disappearing into the small town. Steve, in an effort to keep his crew safe, and suffering from a burning sense of curiosity, had quickly followed at a discrete distance. Natasha and Clint had followed him, mostly out of nosiness, while Bruce has shaken his head and said something about privacy and Thor was, frankly, no use at covert operations as he didn’t believe in hiding when he could charge in full force.

So far, however, they had just followed Tony around, the other man clearly heading somewhere specific.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that Tony veered off from the houses and headed for a sparsely treed area that it became more difficult to track him. The trio had taken to hiding amongst a wheat field that was close enough to see Tony, but not hear him.

“What’s he doing?” Clint muttered as they followed along, crouched low in an effort to remain covert.

No one answered, but Tony finally seemed to come to a stop.

Looking around, Steve was surprised to find that before them was what appeared to be the cemetery of the town, the sparsely growing trees providing something of a barrier between the headstones and the wheat field. They hid amongst the corn for the time it took for Tony to dig into the ground with a pocket knife, until he deemed the hole deep enough. He then moved about, locating a large rock which he placed beside the hole bound book.

He paused for a moment, dirty hands holding the book like it was something precious, before he brought it up to his mouth and pressed his lips to it, then placed it within the hole and began to cover it with dirt. When filled in, he moved the large rock on top of it, before approaching the closest tree. Pocket knife still open, he carved something into the thick trunk, free hand holding onto the tree for balance.

When he was finished, Tony paused for a moment, looking at the rock and carving, before turning from the small graveyard and heading in a roundabout way back towards the town.

Once they were sure that he was out of both earshot and sight, Steve and the others rose to investigate.

Looking to the tree carving first, Steve had to squint slightly to read the badly carved letters.

‘Ho Yinsen’

It was just the name that had been carved, nothing more, and Steve had to wonder who it was that was special enough for Tony to request a trip just to honour them.

“Are we digging it up, Captain?” Clint asked, already squatted down beside the rock and poking it with a finger.

Glancing around, Steve weighted up his new mechanics right to privacy, his own curiosity and his ships safety before giving a single nod that had Clint making short work of the rock and shallow hole.

A minute later, the book was being passed into Steve’s hands and he looked at it with interest. It had been fairly well made, though it was clear that it was quite old now. Bound in broken leather, expensive, it was clearly somebody’s notebook of some kind rather than an actual book - a rarity these days to find the latter. Opening it, Steve could see the fancy handwriting littering the page; whoever had written this had been educated, and well for the degree of flourish with their everyday notes.

It took a moment, but Steve was able to decipher the loops and swirls before him into sense, and he realised that they were personal notes about somebody’s life. Flicking through the book, it was more of the same. All the way until the last filled in page, still many from the last within the book, which merely went into light detail about the writers’ expectations of what the new settlement would be like and how satisfactory the conditions upon the transport ship were…

Steve felt sickness swell within his gut and he quickly shut the book, staring at the dead person’s property and wondering why the hell Tony had felt the need to take it and bury it on such an out of the way planet like Timbetpal?

“Captain?” Natasha asked, voice cutting through his racing thoughts.

“It’s a notebook, from the transport ship,” he explained, voice still tinged with confusion as to what the hell Tony was doing with it.

“Serious? What’s Tony doing taking things from there and burying them in cemeteries on Timbetpal?” Clint asked, peering closer at the notebook in Steve’s hand.

Suddenly feeling guilty, Steve bent down and placed the book carefully back into the hole.

“Let’s cover this up again and get back to the ship.”

“Are you okay, Captain?” Natasha asked, the crease above her eyes deepening as she stared at him.

“Yes, it’s fine. Clint, if you could get everything back to the way it was, please.”

Stepping back, Steve stared towards the town, trying to fight down the guilt rising in his gut.

There had been nothing wrong with them following after and checking on what Tony was doing. Despite his easy countenance, Tony was still very much an enigma when it came to his background. He had been very good at keeping his past close to his chest and was excellent at deflecting unwanted attention. Steve had a duty to both his crew and himself to be suspicious of odd behaviour. Ignoring something out of politeness or a sense of misplaced guilt wasn’t something he could afford to do.

“Steve,” turning slightly, Steve wasn’t surprised to see Natasha standing beside him. “It was for the safety of the ship.”

“I know,” he nodded, before going back to staring at the town. He didn’t need Natasha reminding him of what he already knew.

“Ready, Captain,” Clint announced a few moments later.

He glanced back to the grave – for that was what it was – the notebook had once more been buried beneath the dirt, the rock placed upon it and the site blending in as well as to be expected with the other graves around them.

“Let’s return to the ship,” he gave a final nod, and they began the trek back.

 

*

 

Tony wasn’t hard to find when they made it back to the ship. In fact, the man was sitting on one of the deck chairs Clint and Thor frequently sprawled in when they were picking up passengers and doing some honest work for a change. Despite his odd behaviour on the planet thus far, he didn’t appear surprised to see the rest of the crew, minus Thor and Bruce, the latter of whom was standing beside Tony conversing with him, when they arrived.

“I wondered when you’d return. You weren’t that far behind me for the most part, so I hope you put everything back the way you found it,” his tone was light, but there was a darkness to his eyes that implied that while he had let them follow him and unearth what he’d already buried, he didn’t like it.

“I think we need to get in the sky, then have a talk,” Steve said, eyes trained on Tony.

There was a brief pause of movement, wherein Steve briefly wondered if Tony would protest, say it was none of their business and to butt the hell out. But then he ducked his head slightly, conceding defeat as he rolled fluidly to his feet and began dragging the deck chair back up the ramp and into the ship’s cargo hold.

The rest of the crew worked quickly to get the Avenger back into the sky and, in a matter of minutes, they were leaving Timbetpal behind.

Steve waited until they were set on an orbit of the planet before motioning for Clint and Natasha, the only two who had followed him all the way to the bridge, to follow him.

The rest of the crew and Tony were sitting in the kitchen, a small array of protein packs had been pulled out and set up for a late lunch. Although there was some mechanical eating going on, Steve didn’t miss the unusual silence of the room when the three of them entered.

Sitting down at the table in his normal seat, Steve looked over at Tony who was single-mindedly using his fork to break apart the food, though none of it ever made it to his mouth.

“Are you ready to discuss what happened today?” Steve asked, not even bothering with the illusion of eating just yet. After he had some answers he’d start worrying about sustenance.

Tony put down his fork and sighed, arms crossing over his chest as he leaned back, looking up at the ceiling for a long moment clearly gathering his thoughts.

“I suppose, given the circles you move in, you’ve heard of the Ten Rings before?” He finally began.

Steve frowned distastefully at the mere name. The Ten Rings was an organisation that had no moral code. They were famed for their ability to snatch people off the streets of even the most fortified of planets. The people that fell victim to them were never heard from again, but rumours of the torture and heavy experimentation that they suffered at the Ten Rings hands were enough to turn even the more iron clad of stomachs. Steve, himself, had only ever heard the rumours, though more than a few passing travellers in various bars and taverns on planets both near and far knew someone who was related to one of the alleged victims.

“They are an organisation that specialises in making people disappear, yes?” Thor spoke up.

“Among other things. Primarily they’re used as a scapegoat for people who aren’t ballsy enough to kill people themselves. If the price is right, they’ll agree to make someone disappear, though killing them outright is rarely their plan. They control a series of battle ready spacecraft that circuit the outer spaces of the ‘verse. At least one of the ships is used primarily for human experimentation, another for endurance exercises. They sell the knowledge they acquire from their _acquisitions_ to governments and police enforcement agencies all over the ‘verse.”

“You seem to be well informed,” Natasha commented.

Steve couldn’t help but agree, Tony seemed to know a great deal about the organisation. At least, he spoke of it as fact rather than the usual speculative rumour.

“Well,” a bitter smile crossed his face. “I should hope I was a little informed given I was sold to them for some years.”

Steve felt his stomach drop at the revelation.

“ _Lao Tien Fu_. Tony,” Bruce looked pale and slightly nauseated, his eyes locked on Tony who was determinedly staring at Steve himself, daring him to say anything.

“How did you escape?” Steve asked, trying not to dwell on thoughts of Tony being held by the Ten Rings, of all the horrific stories he had heard. He refused to think about what Tony may have suffered under the hands of such barbaric people.

“I met a man there, he was acting as a medic of sorts. Back on his planet, he’d been one of the finest doctors, but,” Tony let out a small, humourless huff of laughter. “He saved my life at one point and soon we got to talking. Before I knew it, we had a plan to escape. Between my innate knowhow of the workings of ships, the freedom privileges he was allowed due to his medical knowledge, and a lot of luck. We managed to get away in one of the escape pods during a landing.”

“A landing?” Natasha asked.

Tony broke his eye contact with Steve to look over at the sole woman on board, face expressionless.

“When they brought the new _acquisitions_ onto the ship.”

Steve felt his stomach twist.

“We rigged the whole thing to blow once we were a safe distance away. I never looked back, but the ships were connected via their operations systems, so when I rigged that to self-destruct it all blew to shit. Yinsen and I were the only survivors.”

Steve momentarily felt bad for the possibly innocent people who were merely caught in the crossfire, but considering what fate laid before them with the Ten Rings, Tony’s actions were more of a mercy than anything else.

“Yinsen and I travelled together for a few months afterwards, planet hopping on anything that was space worthy. Finally, we parted ways with Yinsen headed for his home planet, and I for wherever the ‘verse took me. I never heard from him again…” Tony’s voice softened, sadness creeping into his tone.

“I had assumed that, like so many others, he’d become lost in the Dark. But I guess, a worse fate befell him.”

Silence filled the dining room, each of the crew looking away from one another as they tried to process the tragic tale.

Steve, himself, allowed a moment of sadness to fill him for both the unknown Yinsen and Tony. To find out that someone who had saved your life, someone you’d experienced so much with, had been a victim of the most twisted and inhumane creatures in the ‘verse wouldn’t have been easy.

But then Steve pulled himself together. He was the captain of this ship and his immediate worries were about the crew and ship now, not what had happened to them in the past.

“Thank you, Tony.”

Tony gave him a bland smile before pushing himself to his feet.

“I ain’t that eager to leave your ship’s crew just yet, Captain,” he gave Steve a small nod then disappeared from the room, his footsteps echoing towards the engine room.

“Well, _Ta Ma De_.” Clint said after the ringing silence of the room became too much.

Steve didn’t think there was a better way to sum up his feelings.

 

 

 

  
Oh, God: _Lao Tien Fu_  
Fuck - _Ta Ma De_

 


	7. Yurma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Have some Tony!whump and learn a bit about Bruce. Enjoy!  
> All errors are mine.

**Welcome to Yurma!**

**One of the first planets to be colonised in the Outer Rings, Yurma is a historical mark of the human race’s desire to explore the Dark. Due to the planets substandard ozone layer letting in a dangerous level of UV rays from the nearby Sun Star, Yurma boasts a thriving night life. Come and visits the numerous underground shops and nightclubs, as well as the town’s historic subterranean square - which is said to hold the first tunnel early settlers dug.**

 

Steve shifted where he stood on the rocky ground, his practiced eyes trained on the shadowed surroundings as his crew slowly lugged the cargo they had been entrusted with closer to the ship.

Yurma was, unfortunately, one of the more difficult planets in the outer rings to smuggle goods off of, but not impossible. Frankly, Steve had been thankful for the job they’d received via wave the day after Tony’s reveal. There had been a tension to the ship after the mechanic had told them his history, about Dr Yensen and the Ten Rings.

The wave had requested for them to pick up some medical supplies on Yurma and deliver them to Eboracum Novum. It was strange cargo, as Yurma was predominantly history buffs and young collage kids looking for a bit of a thrill and dance club experience. Being in the outer rings meant that it wasn’t difficult to source various types of drugs and alcohol in the underground clubs. Getting the items on and off the planet, however, was a whole black market experience that Steve tended to keep away from. Young people getting high and drunk wasn’t something he cared to involve himself in.

Medical supplies, he suspected, had been smuggled onto the planet, and then the culprits were likely caught before they’d been able to move them along. Hence, Steve and his crew now found themselves picking up the pieces and taking on cargo of unknown origin. Steve would charge extra when they reached their destination.

The crew had jumped at the chance for a change of pace and a convenient distraction. It didn’t matter how ‘normal’ Tony tried to act, the tension around his shoulders whenever one of the crew was nearby was visible, a clear enough sign that he didn’t want anyone asking about his experiences. Not that Steve expected any of them would, the crew of The Avenger all had their own stories they were reluctant to tell, himself included.

“Steady,” Steve said quietly; Tony, Thor and Natasha were trying their best to blend in with the few people milling around in the electricity lit street, the red dirt appearing almost black beneath their feet.

The cargo finally loaded and secure, Steve eyed the towns people as he climbed up to perch atop the goods themselves. Thor sat behind the wheel of the transport bike they were using to move the cargo, the whole load dipping slightly with the man's weight. Natasha sat behind Thor, perched on a medi-box concealed beneath a canvas tarp, she was now barely taller than the large man. Tony seated himself with his back to Steve, body facing the small dirt cloud the bike stirred up as they began to make their way back to the ship.

“ _Ma Fahn,_ ” Tony murmured suddenly after a few minutes of silence, his hand casually reaching behind him to brush against the small of his back where he’d concealed a gun before they left the ship.

Steve tilted his head just enough so that he could shoot a look behind them, disguising his hand resting high on his thigh near his gun holsters as him simply repositioning himself.

Through the other people milling about their daily – or was it nightly? - lives, he could make out the Yurma police officers gesturing and pointing towards them.

“ _Mei Yong Ma Duh Tse Gu Yong,_ ” Steve groaned, a sense of inevitability settling over him.

One day, they would do a job and it would be easy. It would all go to plan and they’d have time and energy to spare at the end of it.

Today, was not that day.

“Thor, go,” Steve called out to the front, one hand clamping down on the secured cargo so that he wouldn’t fall off, the other reaching for his gun.

The sound of a shot being fired behind them accompanied the jerk of the bike as Thor swerved slightly. Steve quickly lost himself to the familiar back and forward of a gun fight

It was going as usual, police issue laser guns were notoriously unreliable if you asked Steve, when a sudden pained sound caught his attention. He only just managed to flinch backwards, Tony’s head just missing colliding with his own as the other man jerked back against the cargo and into Steve.

“Tony!” Steve yelled, half angry and half surprised by the sudden movement.

Tony lurched forward, body curling in defensively as he tried to keep his gun aloft, pointing it more in the general direction of their pursuers then actually aiming at anything. A sick feeling slicked down to Steve’s stomach and he instinctively reached forward with the hand not holding his gun, a stupid move as it left he liable to falling off the bike if Thor made a sudden turn, before he grabbed hold of the back of Tony’s shirt. If the man had been hit, and Steve had seen enough people injured to be fairly confident that this was the case, then he didn’t need the mechanic falling off the back of the bike and being caught by the authorities. It’d be a pain in the ass to try and spring him.

“Thor! Faster!” Steve yelled, relying mostly on Natasha’s ability to shoot with precision as he was mostly out of commission thanks to holding onto the mechanic and trying to keep his balance.

Thankfully, it wasn’t too much further to the ship, and as soon as Thor rode the bike up the ramp, Natasha had sprung off the bike and hit the button to raise the ramp.

“Fly, Clint!” She yelled into the communications system a moment later.

“Bruce!” Steve called out as Thor came to a jerking stop.

The doctor appeared at the top of the catwalk, no doubt having been up in the control room talking with Clint while the two had waited for the rest of the crew to return to them.

“What’s happened?” He asked as he hurried down the stairs, the loud thumping of his shoes on the metal heard over the engine roaring to life as they began their ascent.

“I think Tony’s been hit,” Steve said, getting off the bike and shoving his gun into its holster. He let go of the back of the mans’ shirt, only to grip onto his shoulder a moment later in an effort to push him upright so they could see where he’d been injured.

The front of his shirt was soaked in blood, the dark liquid moulding the fabric to his skin. A hurt sounding noise escaped Tony's throat and Steve felt something in his gut clench in response. Taking the man's gun, Steve slipped his arms beneath Tony's and levered him off the bike, Thor quickly moving around and to take hold of the man’s legs as they lifted him between them and moved down the small corridor to the infirmary.

“Set him here,” Bruce said, gesturing to the single medical seat the room housed as he threw open a draw containing hypo-gun's still sealed in their hygienic plastic wrappers. Pulling out one, he moved to a cupboard and opened it to reveal a row of vials with various coloured liquids within them. Selecting one, he removed the hypo-gun from the plastic and inserted the vial, before placing it on the counter top and moving to yet another draw. 

“I need his shirt off,” Bruce said, pausing to toss a pair of scissors to Steve, who caught them and reached for Tony’s already ruined shirt to cut it away.

“No,” Tony groaned, bloody fingers slipped around Steve’s wrist as he tried to pull him away from his shirt.

“Tony, we need to get to the wound so that we can patch it up,” Steve said, voice patient despite the urgency of the situation. He viciously supressed the rising panic within his gut. Anger over someone senselessly shooting Tony replaced it, and he allowed that to fill him, to give him the energy he needed to complete the task at hand.

“No, don’t,” the mechanics eyes were glassy with shock and pain as he gave another weak tug of Steve’s wrist.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not letting you die on my ship,” Steve said firmly, and grabbed Tony’s shirt, neatly cutting it up the middle before he pulled it open at the front, the sleeves preventing it from being removed completely.

Tony let out another soft ‘ _no_ ’, his other hand leaving where it had been covering his wound to slide up his chest as he tried to cover something else.

A soft, blue light filled the room, and Steve found himself frozen, bloodied shirt in one hand, scissors in the other, Tony’s hand still weakly holding onto his wrist. He stared at the man lying before him, the bloody wound barely registering as his eyes were stuck on the strange blue disc of light that peaked through Tony's fingers.

“ _Lao Tien Fu_ _,_ ” Steve breathed, the room stilling as all eyes stared.

Their mechanic was hiding more than just a troubled past.

 

*

 

“A cyborg,” Clint’s voice was a touch gleeful as he sat on the cushioned seats in the corner of the room, hawk-like eyes watching as Bruce carefully moved the Dermal Mender over Tony’s wound, the device working to stitch the skin back together.

“He’s not a cyborg,” Natasha said, voice patient as ever with the ridiculous things Clint came out with.

“That glowing light powering his human suit begs to differ,” Clint scoffed.

“Clint,” Steve sighed, glancing at him from where he stood beside Tony.

Clint just grinned at him, momentarily holding his tongue.

Tony made a low, mumbled sound, head rolling on the medical bed towards Bruce. After the revelation of the light that was embedded within Tony’s chest, Bruce had snapped out of his surprise first, and been quick to administer a smoother with the hypo-gun he'd put on the counter, before he began cleaning out the wound on the man’s gut with a small device that spurted out short streams of hot water.

“I’m just finishing up, Tony,” Bruce said soothingly, pressing the Dermal Mender over the tender, pink skin once more.

“So,” Tony mumbled again, this time vaguely audible.

“What’s so?” Bruce humoured him.

Tony opened and closed his mouth without a sound, before licking his lips as if parched.

“Told. So,” Tony managed to get out.

“Told what so?” Bruce put down the Dermal Mender, before reaching for the antibacterial cream and some gauze that'd he'd placed on the small roller table that patients used as a table while in the medical chair.

Tony hummed for a long moment, and something in Steve’s chest gave an almost fond twinge. Now that the immediate danger had passed, he allowed himself to focus on the amusement that curled within his chest at Tony's drugged behaviour as a result of the pain numbing smoother. It was kind of adorable.

Tony reached out as Bruce was about to put the cream on him and thunked his hand onto the doctor’s chest a few times.

“Told _you_ so,” the injured mechanic looked pleased with himself, despite his wound.

This time it was Bruce who looked mildly amused.

“What did you tell me so about?” He asked.

“He’s a cyborg,” Clint hissed, almost vibrating in his seat with amusement.

“You said… you weren’t right for the ship,” Tony spoke slowly, pausing to once more wet his lips.

Steve’s eyes snapped to Bruce, saddened at the reveal of the man’s feelings. A cold feeling doused his prior amusement as he mentally reprimanded himself for not noticing that Bruce was feeling out of place on his ship.

When Bruce had first travelled with them, Steve had quickly offered him a position upon the ship. The man was an outlaw in his own right, wanted by certain people in the ‘verse for what they considered crimes. Steve was still a little foggy on what, exactly, it was that Bruce had done to incur the wrath of powerful, vengeful people, but he was pretty sure it had something to do with illegal surgeries. The man certainly wasn’t a saint, but from what Steve could gather from the feelers he’d put out before offering him a position on his ship, Bruce had been trying to help people that the health care system on his planet of residence had written off as lost causes.

Steve was pretty sure that operating on desperate people to try and save their lives after the hospitals had told them they were as good as dead, was a minor sin in the grand scheme of things.

The problem was that Bruce had refused the offer.

Steve had, honestly, been surprised at his refusal. Bruce wasn’t a big talker, nor did he constantly desire company, but he got along well enough with the rest of the crew that Steve knew he’d find something of a home here with them. But Bruce was adamant that he wasn’t a part of the crew, and every now and then he’d disappear onto a planet while the rest of them went off to do a job or two before happening to swing by and find Bruce ready to move on again. In a way, it was almost like the arrangement Steve had with Natasha, the Companion occasionally going off to conduct business and earn some legitimate money, between the various illegal jobs they took.

Bruce had been operating this way with Steve’s crew for years now and Steve, perhaps foolishly, had believed that Bruce considered him to be at home when on the ship with the rest of them.

It seemed he was the only one to think like that.

“But you’re wrong,” Tony drew out the ‘o’ sound, snorting as if bemused at himself for having done so.

“Who’d have saved me, hmm?” Tony’s eyes slid shut as he hummed again.

“Important,” he patted Bruce’s chest again before letting his arm fall back onto the operating chair, apparently finished with his ‘I told you so’ for now.

Steve risked looking at Bruce to gauge his reaction to what had probably been a fairly private conversation aired before the whole crew, but the doctor’s face was carefully blank.

The room seemed to hold its breath, except for Tony who was smiling almost lazily now, that humming sound coming and going every few seconds, as if he couldn’t quite remember a tune.

Finally, Bruce slowly reached out and resumed tending to the injured man before him. No one spoke as he did so, all eyes carefully watching him for some kind of reaction to Tony’s words.

When the doctor was putting the last of the sticky gauze over the tenderly reattached edges of the wound, he paused, a hand lightly resting atop it.

“Perhaps,” he said slowly, eyes looking at Tony, who seemed to be dozing off now. “You're right.”

 

 

 

 

 

Trouble, problem, complication -  _Ma Fahn_

Motherless goat of all motherless goats -  _Mei Yong Ma Duh Tse Gu Yong_

Oh, God -  _Lao Tien Fu_

 


	8. Health

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve's reflects on his past while Tony's secrets continue to spill.  
> All errors are mine.

**Discover healthy living today!**

**The USC is proud to offer its citizens the latest in research and development in the field of medical science. Boasting state of the art facilities in various locations across the Core Planet’s sector, good health has never been so easy to achieve. Every tax paying citizen of the ‘verse is welcome to try the custom-tailored health insurance plans that all of our hospitals have on offer. It’s a wonderful time to be healthy!**

 

Steve quietly stared through the observation window into the infirmary, his arms crossed over his chest and eyes fixed on the now peaceful figure on the lone medical seat.

He’d thought that after the reveal of Tony’s history, of his entanglement with the Ten Rings, there couldn’t be much more that he was hiding. However, the bright blue light in his chest mocked Steve’s naivety.

It made him wonder just how many secrets Tony was still keeping.

“Captain?” Bruce’s voice was quiet as he stepped up beside him, both of them looking through the window.

“Everythin’ all good, Doctor?”

“Yes, it looks as though Tony will make a full recovery in no time,” Bruce said.

Silence stretched between them.

“Ever seen somethin' like that before?” Steve asked quietly, not taking his eyes from Tony’s sleeping form.

Bruce made a thoughtful sound in his throat before responding.

“Never exactly like that, no,” he said after a pause. “I’ve seen people who’ve had operations that’ve left scarring like that. The occasional person with a closed mouth about what planet they’ve been to that resulted in metal being inserted into various parts of their bodies. Crude prosthetics from backend alleyways in more inner planets. That kind of thing.”

“You’re sayin' it’s a prosthetic? In his chest?” Steve turned to him in disbelief.

“Honestly, Captain,” he turned to face Steve. “I’ve no idea what it is or, more importantly, what it does.” He removed his glasses and rubbed at his eyes for a moment before replacing them. “If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say it’s something like a cardiac infuser. It’s a practice used in patients with heart troubles, but this,” he waved a hand in the direction of the Infirmary, “I’ve never seen something like this before.”

Steve’s frown deepened.

“Thank you, Doctor. Alert me when he’s conscious, please,” he turned to leave before pausing and looking back.

“You know we appreciate you bein’ here, doc. This ship ain’t feel right without you on it,” he said, and then left before the other man could respond. The issue of Doctor Banner’s feelings regarding the ship and his place on it would have to wait for now.

He walked into the cargo hold and up the stairs, then along the catwalk until he reached the base of the stairs to the front hall. Turning left towards the bridge, he came to a stop just before it at the door to his own quarters. Pushing against the handle, the door slid backwards to expose the stairs below, and he descended into his quarters.

Allowing himself to relax slightly with no chance of his crew poking their heads into the space, Steve sat down heavily on his bed and ran a hand over his face. Leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, he gave himself a moment to let his mind drift. It was only a small respite from his growing headache, but it was enough.

He cast a weary eye around his military neat room, no sentimental items cluttering up any of the surfaces, or anything that could easily be fashioned into a weapon by an intruder. The rooms’ purpose was for sleep, and to sometimes hide away from the rest of his crew when his memories were too strong and he needed to be alone and just feel the aching loss from the war that still sometimes crept up on him.

The intergalactic war had been hard on many planets and their people. The government had fed everyone a steady diet of misinformation that, until it had been too late, Steve had blindly followed. He’d believed so much in the honour and justice of the government that he’d signed up to fight those that were resisting. He had risen in the ranks, right up to the command of Captain, without questioning anything.

He’d been in his element with his brother by his side.

Then, in a freak mission where the resistance had been able to force back the governments’ troops, an order had come via wave into the bridge.

‘ _Dai Kai Sa Jeh_ – maximum force authorised’

An entire moon rocks’ population was to be killed. Steve had been down on that rock for the initial meeting, wherein he’d attempted to talk the people into falling in line with the government’s system. He’d tried to show them how beneficial and sustainable it would make their community. Steve had seen the young children there, peering through curtains as their mothers rushed them away. He’d seen the primitive weaponry that the people had at their disposal. He’d known that it would take only a bit of time before his unit would have been able to supress those that were the real resistance, and everyone else would have just been glad for the conflict to have been over.

Steve was no saint, he’d killed people before in the line of duty. But, those people had been armed with weapons like his own, they’d been set on creating bombs to hurt innocent people in cities that weren’t even directly involved with the conflict. They were genuinely bad people who would see innocents hurt to achieve their goals… weren’t they?

Ultimately, Steve had refused to issue the order to his men and, faced with being labelled as a deserter, of being prosecuted by the very government they’d spent years believing unflinchingly in, Bucky had stood up and taken over command.

Steve had been incarcerated upon their ship for his betrayal, while Bucky had led the men to once more land on the planet and lay waste to every living thing they encountered. It was disgusting, mercenary work that Steve felt ill to even think about years later. He hadn’t been able to stop it and it had left a sense of guilt like led in his gut.

After the deed had been done and the men had been distracted with collecting their spoils of war, Bucky had snuck back into the lock up area of the ship and freed Steve, having never intended on leaving him there. They’d been fleeing the ship when the alarm had sounded and the shooting began almost immediately.

Steve had managed to escape unscathed.

Bucky had fallen to a fellow government soldier’s gun.

Steve had sworn in that moment, breathless and squinting in the fading light at the shape of his unmoving brother on the cold, hard ground; he’d never forgive the USC for what they’d done. Steve would spend the rest of his life as far away from them as possible, making his own way with his small ship, living the free life he and Bucky had dreamed of as children.

Steve had been the perfect _Zhan Shi_ , and they had just thrown him aside when he’d refused to commit mass genocide.

If he ever got a chance to stick it to the USC… well, Steve was only human.

With another sigh, he pushed away the painful memories and turned his attention to his mechanic and the ongoing drama that he was bringing to their ship.

Tony, despite everything that he’d told them about himself so far, was still largely an enigma to Steve. It was frustrating that as soon as he thought he’d started to understand the man, Tony seemed to have yet more secrets tucked away, waiting for inopportune moments to reveal them.

Although, Steve couldn’t really fault Tony for ending up shot, it was a miracle that no one else had been injured with that many guns going off at them.

When Tony had told them about his kidnapping and subsequent imprisonment with the Ten Rings… Steve had felt nauseated just thinking about it. There were few groups that were horrendous enough that people like Steve, out of touch with most of the world and living a life outside of societies rules and regulations, ended up hearing about. The stories of horror and human experimentation were enough to give anyone nightmares. While part of Steve wished that there had been something Tony could have saved some of the people rather than condemning them to death, he understood. As soon as the Ten Rings had gotten hold of each and every one of those people, they’d been as good as killed.

Steve wasn’t exactly entirely sure _how long_ Tony had been held, far longer than the average person if he’d formed an attachment with someone, but even just an hour with those monsters was enough to break the strongest of men.

Or so Steve had heard, anyway.

Thinking back to the blue, glowing light embedded into the very flesh of Tony’s chest, Steve had to wonder just what those monsters had done to him. There was no way Tony had acquired such a disfigurement anywhere reputable. But, what was the purpose of it? What could a light in one’s chest achieve? Bruce said it was possibly cardiac infusers, but Steve wasn’t so sure.  

For a brief moment, he morbidly amused himself with the idea of it being a bomb, before snorting and dismissing the idea. There was no way there’d be any room within Tony’s chest cavity for his organs and the equipment required to produce an explosive.

Standing up straight, he stretched his arms high above his head, finger tips brushing the roof of his quarters, before he moved once more to the stairs. He had a ship to run, and if he stayed down there he’d just fixate over questions he didn’t have the answers to.

 

*

 

Steve looked over to Tony at the sound of a low groan from where he’d been lounging in the built-in seats lining one wall of the infirmary.

The mechanic was blinking up at the ceiling of the room, a look of groggy confusion on his face.

Swinging his legs back to the floor, the sound of his boots thwacking on the metal caught Tony’s attention, and he turned his head to face him, eyes slow to focus.

“Welcome back,” Steve said quietly, voice oddly loud in the otherwise quiet room.

Tony turned back to the ceiling, a hand raising and rubbing at his eyes.

“What happened?” he asked, voice an octave lower than usual.  

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Steve moved closer to him, coming to stand beside his bed and resting a hand on the cushioned surface beside Tony’s shoulder.

“We were… on Yuram? Shooting - shot. I got shot.” Tony pulled his hand away from his face, an annoyed look on his face as he struggled to leverage himself upright. He only got halfway up before he flinched, hissing out in pain as he placed a hand over the now bandaged wound while lying back down.

“ _Ta Ma De_ ,” he groaned.

Steve snorted in agreement.

“The good doctor patched you up just fine,” he reassured him, eyes flicking between the man and the medical monitor that displayed his vitals for any indicator that his condition was changing.

“Tell that to my achin' gut,” Tony grunted.

Steve was about to say something more when Tony suddenly jerked, his hand moving up from the wound to cover the blue light in his chest as his eyes snapped to Steve’s, body tensing defensively.

“You saw,” he said, voice oddly neutral.

Steve nodded, remaining still and waiting for Tony to continue. When he didn’t, Steve took the initiative.

“Bruce said he’s never seen the likes of it before.”

Tony let out a small, bitter snort of laughter.

“Yeah, well,” he fidgeted where he lay, clearly uncomfortable with Steve looming over him.

“The thing that no one can seem to figure out is what, exactly, it’s doin’ there.”

Tony looked away from him, eyes back to the neutral ground that was the ceiling.

“I did tell you that I was held captive by the Ten Rings,” he said at last.

Steve clenched his hands into fists, but patiently remained still and silent as Tony slowly, hesitantly, continued.

“One day, soon after my arrival, there was an… _incident_ ,” a humourless smile crossed Tony’s face. “I was injured by shrapnel, right in my chest, close to my heart.” Steve’s breath caught in his throat, eyes indivertibly drawn to where Tony flattened his hand over his heart. “I don’t remember too much of what happened next, just the pain.”

Steve gave into the urge to reach for him, and rested a hand on his shoulder.

“My friend - the doctor, Yinsen - he was able to put together a crude magnet that was powered by one of the spare engine cells. Once I was well – no – better?” he paused for a moment before sighing loudly. “Moving. Once I was movin’ again, I made a proper energy source to keep the shrapnel from enterin' my heart and killin' me.”

Steve’s hand tightened on Tony’s shoulder.

“You’re sayin'…” he looked against at the man’s chest as a tightness filled his own.

“Yes. It’s still in my chest. Medicine ain’t yet advanced enough to remove it without loss of life.”

Silence stretched between them for a long moment as Steve tried to digest the new information.

“Does it hurt?” he finally asked, looking up and meeting Tony’s brown eyes again.

“It works,” Tony countered.

“As long as this little blue light is shinin’, ain’t nothin’ to worry about.”

Steve sincerely doubted that, but didn’t bother trying to argue with the injured man.

He focused on quietening his furious thoughts at the idea of someone hurting Tony like that. Of whatever incident, it was that caused shrapnel to become imbedded into Tony’s chest, so close to his vulnerable heart. The Ten Rings were nothing more than a defeated terrorist organisation of the ‘verse. There was no one for Steve to fight anymore, the battle was over before he’d even known it had begun.

All that was left before him was an injured soldier, no less beautiful for his war wounds.

His thoughts had been increasingly falling into daydreams about the man before him. Just looking at Tony lying on the medical chair, the light dimmed to keep a calm atmosphere conducive to sleep, Steve couldn’t help the way his chest warmed. The man’s dark locks were in need of a wash, but they still spilt over the flat pillow in a way that made Steve long to know if they looked that way when he woke up in the mornings. He wanted to ease the tension that radiated off Tony’s body, to calm him into a state of relaxation and, if he was lucky enough, pleasure. He wanted like he’d never wanted before.

It was almost a physical sensation as he pulled his thoughts back to the moment at hand. Tony needed to rest and heal up before he could entertain the more risqué imaginings he’d had.

“Rest up, Tony; that’s enough talkin' for now,” he said.

Tony looked slightly surprised, as if he’d been expecting to get the third degree from Steve. The lines around his mouth eased as did the line of his body when the tension slowly left him.

“Besides, we’ll need you tendin' to the engine soon enough.”

Tony hummed lowly, body relaxing back onto the medical chair as he closed his eyes again, his still weakened body quickly succumbing to a healing sleep.

Steve stepped away from the man, heading for the door where he paused once more glance back at Tony with a growing feeling in his chest. Tony’s quiet breathing was barely audible to him, but the comfort of the sound reassured him enough to leave and head back to join the rest of the crew.

He had a ship to captain, after all.

 

 

 

 

Fire at will or terminate with extreme prejudice (“breaking the Buddhist vow against killing”) – _Dai Kai Sa Jeh_

Soldier, fighter, warrior – _Zhan Shi_

Fuck - _Ta Ma De_

 


	9. New, New York

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Steve lets alcohol get to him and Natasha is an expert at teasing.  
> All errors are mine.

**Welcome to New, New York!**

**The moon designed to pay homage to the original colonists’ home city of New York, this is one tourist destination not to be missed. Located within the Core Planets, this small moon is a bustling metropolis of culture and business, with throwbacks from before space travel was even possible! Come and visit the city that every space traveller puts at the top of their ‘must see’ list. Don’t miss out today!**

 

Steve had been reluctant to venture so far into the Core Planets to get to New, New York, but their contact had insisted that they deliver the goods there and he wanted to get paid.

New, New York was only a small sized moon, but it boasted having one of the most densely populated places in all of the ‘verse. A mixture of recreated landmarks of earth-that-was, and the latest technological trends sweeping the rich and famous, it was exactly the kind of flashy place Steve liked to avoid.

Steve was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of heels on metal, and smiled up at the beautiful woman as she descended the catwalk stairs into the cargo hold. She was wearing a beautiful cream coloured sarong dress, delicate stitching covered her bodice and a finely spun scarf was draped around her shoulders.

“Natasha,” Steve said quietly when she reached him, taking her hand and kissing it.

She laughed, her lips painted a deep red.

“I’ll be back tomorrow morning,” she said, adjusting the scarf slightly as they made their way to where everyone else was waiting at the ramp.

“Ain’t you scrub up well,” Tony’s voice teased from where he stood, posture relaxed as he leaned against the wall of the entrance.

“It’s a living,” she shrugged, looking amused.

The Companion profession was extremely difficult to get into, and brought with it a sense of respectability that the lawless ship desperately needed when dealing with the USC. While some might class Companion’s as nothing more than godless whores, those with educated backgrounds and social sense knew that with a Companion on your arm, you could get into almost any social event.

Natasha happened to be one of the best, with her erratic travel on The Avenger making her difficult to obtain and thus all the more sought after. Convincing the woman to travel with his ship had been one of the best things Steve had ever done to secure his crew’s relative safety. She also happened to make an excellent crew member, her ability with a knife or a gun was up there with Steve’s own.

“Sure you don’t want to ditch whatever _Job Bah Jeh_ that’s got your docket and come drinkin’ with us?” Clint asked. “We’d get free drinks with you,” he wiggled his eyebrows, which only earned him a punch to the arm from the deceptively delicate looking woman.

“ _Ni Men Dou Shi Sha Gua_ ,” she muttered as she walked down the ramp, an expensive looking carriage waiting for her.

“ _Yao Nu_ ,” Clint called after her, rubbing at his arm.

“Stop stirring her up, you know she won’t be half easy to be around if you put her in a bad mood,” Steve sighed at his pilot.

“Tasha loves me,” he pouted, and Steve gave up on the two of them, opting as usual to ignore their bizarre relationship.

Leaving The Avenger at the North-West docking station, the rest of the crew wasted no time in finding a bar with half-descent drinks and actual food that wasn’t protein packs.

Steve drank deeply of the cheap ale the bar was selling, eyes tracking the loud music and chatter that surrounded him.

It wasn’t too often that the entire crew was able to leave the ship at one time. Usually someone needed to stay behind just in case some no good scoundrel decided they fancied themselves a ship Captain and tried to commandeer the vessel. But Inner Core planets were - for the most part - fairly scrupulous about their dock security. It made it difficult to get out any smuggled or stolen goods, but it provided the crew with a much-needed land break.

Thor loudly clanked his empty ale mug down onto the wooden table top, letting out a satisfied laugh and wiping his mouth with the back of his free hand.

“Tis a most pleasing way to pass the time!” he declared for all around them to hear, not that anyone appeared to be paying him much attention.

“You said it, buddy,” Clint laughed loudly beside the large man, the ale in his own mug sloshing dangerously close to the lip.

Tony just laughed at them, leaning on the table top, with Bruce sitting beside him, a single mug of the ale sitting barely sipped before him.

“Come on, next rounds on me,” Tony threw back the rest of his own drink and pushed himself to his feet.

“ _Qing Zai Lai Yi Bei Na Kapei_ ,” Clint nodded as he tapped his mug while Thor cheered boisterously, Steve merely offered an appreciative nod. Bruce refused the offer politely, which was met with minimal jeering before Tony headed to the bar, the barest evidence of the drink hitting his system in the way in which he walked.

Steve watched quietly as Thor and Clint descended into a pub song they’d picked up somewhere, no doubt while they’d been on an Outer Ring planet illegally. Bruce was quietly laughing to himself as he watched the two become increasingly ridiculous with their antics. Steve drank deeply from his ale once more, eyes straying back to the bar where Tony was leaning towards the bartender, a hand sliding across the bar top towards the woman. For a moment, Steve thought Tony was actually reaching for her, but then he realised the there was a smooth exchange going on in the middle of the busy bar.

Steve wondered if he should be concerned about the obvious correspondence Tony was engaging in, but decided that now wasn’t the time for such thoughts.

They had been through a lot lately, both Tony, himself, and the crew. While the mechanic certainly seemed to dance to the beat of his own drum, he really hadn’t done anything that would jeopardise Steve’s crew. Where Tony was concerned, there was a remarkable blankness to his past. He’d told them about the Ten Rings and the horror that was being captured by them, the insertion of the glowing blue light in his chest and what it was there for. But, Steve didn’t know anything of his life before his capture.

Watching as Tony and the barmaid finished their exchange of letter for alcohol, Steve allowed himself the rare luxury of relaxing instead of worrying. He was surprised at the degree of trust he felt towards Tony, considering the short period of time in which they’d been acquainted.

Tony set the four mugs down on the table before sliding them to their owners. Throwing himself into his seat beside Steve, the brunet took a drink before turning bright eyes on the captain.

“What’s up, Cap?”

Steve smiled, feeling almost indulgent of the stupid shortening of his title that Tony had taken to calling him. Usually, it just increased his exasperation with whatever Tony was doing at the time, but the ale was working wonders and he found he didn’t have the energy to be even mildly irritated.

“Just thinking about New, New York.”

“You ever been here before?” Tony asked.

“A few times, here and there.”

“Work? Or sightseeing?” Tony crinkled his nose. “Actually, it was work, wasn’t it? I can’t really see you as the tourist type of guy.”

“It was work,” Steve rubbed a thumb absentmindedly across his new mug, the condensation catching and dripping down the side of his hand and pooling where his forearm met the table top.

“Didn’t ever want to see the recreated Statue of Liberty? Or the rebuilt Brooklyn Bridge?” Tony looked thoughtful as he lent his head in the palm of his hand, elbow perched upon the table.

“You ever wonder why we call these structures rebuilt and recreated when the original was so long ago no one alive today’s even see it? It’s not like the original creators back on Earth-that-was, will come at the owners of New, New York and claim a copyright infringement on them.”

“I’d say it’s nostalgia. Just because the human race isn’t restricted to one tiny planet anymore doesn’t mean that we should forget our history. It’s important to remember where we’ve come from so were can chart where we’re going.”

Tony blinked at him, looking a little thrown.

“That was almost poetic, Cap,” he finally said after a too long pause.

Steve shrugged, feeling embarrassment try to crawl up his spine and warm his cheeks. He took another swing of his drink and the feeling abated, though he could feel a different sort of flush staining his cheeks now.

“You ever found yourself on this hunk of rock before?”

“I’m here right now,” Tony offered a lazy looking grin.

Steve silently raised an eyebrow and Tony laughed.

“I’ve been here before, once or twice. Didn’t get to see the sights either, I’m afraid. Business is business.”

Steve’s attention was immediately quipped at the small morsel of personal information Tony had let slip.

“Business such as?”

“Oh, Cap. Let’s not lose all the mystery,” Tony lent in close, his ale scented breath reaching Steve’s nose. “That’s what keeps this relationship alive.”

Steve blinked, feeling a little disorientated at the sudden closeness.

“I guess that’s one way to describe it,” he cleaned his throat and shifted slightly away, feeling warm down to his bones as he once more lifted his ale and took in a large gulp.

Tony lent back into his own chair with an innocent looking smile, but his brown eyes sparked with mischief and Steve immediately realised the trap that he’d walked right into. The alcohol in him made him more amused then annoyed at being played quite so blatantly, at least that’s what he told himself. Steve had the disturbing suspicion that it would take a long stay in the deepest pits of the Dark of the ‘verse to get him mad enough to stay angry at Tony.

“We’ve no business now,” Steve suddenly said, thinking about the various sights that New, New York advertised as THE place to visit.

“We just barely finished a job not two hours ago,” Tony raised an eyebrow.

“Exactly, we could see those sights right now,” Steve lent closer to Tony’s bemused face, warming to his own idea. “Just us, a couple a guys’ seein’ whatever there is ta see.”

“Just how many of these have you had, Captain rules and priorities?” Tony asked, a chuckle escaping him as he gestured to their drinks.

A part of Steve, the part he tried to ignore as it was firmly fixed on mentally cataloguing everything Tony did, wanted to capture this moment forever. The way the rest of the bar had fallen away into the background, their friends included, how Tony’s skin was warmed by the soft lighting. The light sheen of sweat on his brow from the drink, the brightness of his brown eyes as they stared back at Steve with amused confusion.

“If you wanted to, we could go,” Steve said, voice dropping to an intimate whisper as he reached out with liquid courage and took the mechanics hand within his own slightly damp one.

Silence stretched for a long moment between them and Steve thought that maybe he’d misjudged the lingering looks Tony had sent him, the way Tony always seemed to be tuned into Steve’s presence on the ship, the moments they’d spent alone in the engine room together.

But, Tony then smiled softly at him, the one Steve was quickly being to crave seeing on a daily basis, and squeezed his hand.

“Sightseeing is nothing to travelling around and seeing all the planets with you. Let’s just enjoy our ale while we’re here, then and we can start our next adventure when Natasha returns tomorrow.”

Steve had a brief moment of disappointment, but the feeling faded quickly when Tony turned and linked their hands together on the table, his callused fingers slipping between Steve’s own. Contentment curled within his chest and he leaned back in his chair, sipping on his ale with his other hand.

As Clint and Tony launched into a ridiculous recount of their most recent game of cards together, both crying foul at the others’ outrageous cheating, Steve let himself sink into the moment.

 

*

 

Natasha had a particular way of coming at a man when she was planning on digging for information. She was apt at playing various roles, her business as a Companion being but another within her repertoire of masks. It was only the years of experience with deflecting the - sometimes - well intentioned prying that Steve had grown able to dissect the subtle tilt of her head and the widening of her eyes to appear innocent and trustworthy.

When she approached him the next morning on the catwalk of the ship’s cargo hold, Steve’s instinctive fight or flight responses immediately lit up. Like a predator well accustomed to her prey’s attempts at escape - of which Steve had attempted many times before - she slid an arm through his own where he’d been leaning them against the handrail and pinned him there.

“Hello, Captain,” her voice held an artificial sweetness that set his teeth on edge.

“Natasha,” he grunted.

When she failed to say anything more, merely peering down at the cargo floor of the ship where Steve had been gazing absentmindedly before, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Have a successful day at the office?” he queried tentatively after the silence had managed to get under his skin.

She waved a careless hand.

“I brought Bruce back the new Standard Companion Immunization Package, so he’s playing with it in the Infirmary,” she said, telling him more than she usually did about what she got up to when she was working. If she’d been given an Immunization Package, she must have been seeing more than just clients, she must have seen someone from the head of the Companion Organisation.  

“I heard you were unusually reluctant to leave New, New York.”

Despite his best attempt not to, Steve felt himself stiffen. Stupid Clint and his big mouth. Though loyal to a fault, the pilot was inclined to spill any and all secrets and gossip whenever it was Natasha doing to asking. Really, they were lucky she didn’t work against them or they’d all be screwed.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he spoke slowly, choosing his words carefully.

“You were particularly eager to see the sights with our mechanic,” she continued as if he hadn’t spoken.

“You’re _shia suo_ ,” Steve said, eyes fixed on the empty cargo hold determinedly.

He flinched when a pair of sharp nails pinched his side.

“Ow!” he hissed, trying to jerk away from her, but she was freakishly strong when she felt like it.

“That’s what you get when you over indulge with ale. If it wasn’t for our dear mechanic bringing you back to the ship in a timely manner, I’ve no doubt you’d still be trying to convince him to go sightseeing still.”

Natasha shifted so that she could look him in the eye, his arm still trapped within her own.

“What I find more interesting, however, is that you wanted to sightsee at all. I’ve never known you to care about the tourist traps on any planet in the ‘verse before.”

“Get to your point, Natasha.”

She looked at him for a long moment before her lips twitched.

“Were you trying to ask Tony out on a date?” she finally spoke, the amusement clear in her voice this time.

Steve couldn’t stop the flush of heat that crept up his cheeks and he looked away from her.

“I was drunk,” he feebly tried to defend himself.

“I’m sure all the ale did was give you some courage.”

“It don’t matter anyway. He refused and brought me back to the ship,” he grumbled the last part, trying to ignore the disappointment that welled in his gut at his words.

Natasha finally released his arm before tapping him gently on the shoulder.

“He brought you back to the ship because you were one more mug from tripping over your own feet. Hardly date-worthy material at the time. I’m sure if you asked him, properly and soberly, if he wanted to take a short trip to the Gods statue in Aquamarine, he’d be perfectly willing to oblige.”

Steve glanced at her, fingers drumming against the catwalks railing nervously. 

“You really think so?” he asked quietly, the hopefulness in his voice clear even to himself.

“Tony certainly isn’t flying with us just for the joy of working on the Avenger’s engine,” she said with a smirk, before walking past him, headed for her room.

Steve remained where he was, mind wandering upstairs to the engine room where he knew Tony was currently crooning to the bloody engine like it was his baby and he was trying to sooth it. As ridiculous as the man’s antics were, no one could deny that they’d never had such a long period of efficient travel. The engine had been working like it was brand new ever since the man had laid hands on it.

“Captain, report to the bridge, please; Captain to the bridge,” Clint’s voice called over the PA system and Steve let out a small sigh as he pushed away from the railing.

His thoughts about Tony would have to wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Idiots. All of you: _Ni Men Dou Shi Sha Gua_.

Demon woman: _Yao Nu._

Ugly or perverted person: _Joo Bah Jeh_ , insult taken from the name of the hoggish, lecherous character in the popular Chinese folktale, "Journey to the West."

One more cup of that brand, please: _Qing Zai Lai Yi Bei Na Kapei._

Talk nonsense: _Shia Suo._

 


	10. Aquamarine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new job takes a back seat as Steve realises that their new client may have something of a history with Tony.  
> All errors are my own.

**Welcome to Aquamarine!**

**Come and visit the only planet in the Core sector that is almost entirely covered in ocean. With only docking stations above sea-level, come and visit the domed cities of Aquamarine for the unique experience that they are. See the beautiful architecture modelled after the planet’s vast coral reefs, and try to spot one of the famous giant squids that pass by the glass skies of the cities. While you’re there, don’t forget to sample some of the seafood the planet is famous for. Aquamarine – an aquatic experience without getting wet!**

 

Steve stepped from the bullet-shaped capsule that acted as transportation between the landing dock on the surface of Aquamarine, and the entry point to the capital city - Atlantis. Patting down his pockets to make sure he still had everything - one could never be too careful with so many thieves in the universe - he glanced back at Tony and Thor who had accompanied him. Thor looked jovial as usual, his eyes already picking out the nearby fried squid and crab stands that offered street foods to newly arrived guests. Tony, however, was looking around them curiously.

When Clint had called Steve to the bridge to inform him that they’d received a job via wave from Aquamarine, the pilot had looked green around the gills at the idea of going into the city. Clint was very much opposed to the underwater cities and preferred to stay on the ship when they visited them. Natasha, taking pity on the pilot, had agreed to stay with him. Bruce, no one was surprised, had simply taken up residence on the ships loading ramp with Thor’s chair and parasol, content to wait for the rest of the crew while getting some sun.

“What do you think?” Steve asked Tony, amused by the way the mechanics eyes were darting about, trying to take in as many of the sights around them as possible.

Atlantis was the most beautiful of Aquamarine’s cities, with great spiralling towers reminiscent of the coral that rose from its bed, the pastel coloured buildings only added to the effect. While near the entry point of the city there was a fresh seafood market designed to highlight the best samples of food the city offered, the further into the city one went, the more attention had been spent on making it look like a coral reef. Steve, himself, had only been some little ways into the city, but even just staying on the outskirts, it was unlike any planet he’d ever seen before.

That wasn’t even including the huge glass dome that encased the entire city skyline. There was something both disconcerting and magical about looking up and seeing huge fish-like creatures swimming in the sky. Steve had even seen a creature with numerous tentacles sticking itself to the glass on a pervious visit.

“This is definitely one of the more interesting planets I’ve found myself on,” he offered, distracted.

Warmth bloomed in Steve’s chest at his words. Sparing a brief glance at Thor, who was hungrily eyeing a stall with various fried seafood on display, he steeled himself as his brief conversation with Natasha earlier echoed in the back of his mind.

“Have you ever heard of the Gods statue?”

Tony tore his attention away from the glass dome he’d clearly been trying to work out the science behind since they’d arrived underwater.

“No?”

“It’s a popular place to visit on Aquamarine, not just for tourists but the locals also hold various celebrations around the base of it every year,” Steve rubbed at the back of his neck nervously for a moment, before forcefully removing his hand and letting it hang casually at his side.

“Is it meant to bring good fortune or something? People love a good fortune statue,” Tony asked, a smile curving his lips in Steve’s favourite way.

“Somethin’ like that,” Steve tried hard not to blush, opting not to mention one of the most popular reasons for visiting the statue.

Thor, however, didn’t get the memo and suddenly the blonds thick arm swung around his shoulders and Steve had to lock his knees to keep from going under from the added weight.

“Ay! The Gods’ statue! Such a place is perfect for such noble comrades as you both.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Tony cocked an eyebrow at the large man, and Steve determinedly looked about the food stalls so as not to catch Tony’s eye.

“The Gods’ statue is said to bless those with budding love between them. It will install the power of the fates into your union and thus bring about prosperity and longevity,” Thor explained, sounding delighted at the opportunity to share his knowledge.

“That feels like a lot of responsibility for one statue,” Tony still sounded amused rather than upset.

“Tis a most solemn responsibility. Helping people find their love, what is a more noble cause?”

“That’s true, wouldn’t want to miss out on such a blessin’, hey, Steve?”

Like a magnet, Steve’s eyes found Tony’s at the sound of his name, and the warmth there eased Steve’s nerves.

“Would be a mighty shame,” he said.

To his surprise, Tony’s cheeks grew pink, and the man turned away after a moment, looking rather pleased. Steve took that as agreement on Tony’s behalf to revisit the conversation later on, before he turned his attention back to the mission.

He led the trio through the crowds towards the unmarked sushi place that had been selected as the meeting spot via the wave.

Upon arriving, Steve followed the waiter to a private room out the back of the establishment, waiting until they left them alone in the room to turn and face the other occupant.

“Nick,” Steve said, a bit of the past soldier in him slipping into his voice and straightening his spine.

Nick Fury, a literal one-eyed captain, was part of SHIELD, a large sub-group of the USC. While Nick was content to work under the governments ridiculous rules and regulations, he was just as willing to hire outside help when particularly delicate situations arose that provided too much red tape to resolve to his satisfaction.

Steve had been doing the odd job for Nick for a few years now, and the two shared something of a grudging respect. Steve provided a way around the law for Nick to achieve his goals, and in return Nick paid Steve for his services and looked the other way instead of arresting him and his crew.

It was, for the most part, an unspoken and precarious agreement between the two.

“Steve,” Nick jerked his head in acknowledgement.

“So, what did you call us here for?” Steve got straight to business. There was no point in pleasantries when both parties were tense around the other.

“I’m working as something of a go-between today. I have someone who has had an employee kidnapped and they wish for their safe return. They should be arriving shortly,” Nick said.

As though summoned, the door opened again and the waiter entered with a young Asian woman following closely behind. She was rather beautiful, her dark hair swept up upon her head and held in place with an expensive looking clip. Her clothing, while clearly bought to not stand out so much, was brand new and the skirts around her legs swished with each step she took.

The sudden sharp intake of air to his right distracted Steve for a moment, and he glanced in surprise to see Tony’s attention was completely taken with the newcomer. The woman, Steve noted, paused for a moment upon setting her dark eyes on Tony. It was such a brief pause, that if Steve hadn’t been looking for it, he wasn’t sure he’d have even noticed.

“Greetings,” she said, once the waiter had once more left the room. She stood near Nick, but Steve noted that she left enough space between them for it to be clear that there was limited trust there.

“This here is Rumiko Fujikawa. She is part of the Fujikawa Industries family,” Nick made the introductions. “Rumiko, this here is Captain Steve Rogers of the Avenger. He’s our best bet at getting back Dr Helen Cho.”

“It is nice to meet you, I wish it could have been under better circumstances,” she bowed slightly to Steve, her voice perfectly polite.

“You too,” he said, still conscious of the tension coming off of his mechanic.

“What can you tell me about the job?” he continued, eager to get the meeting over with and move out where he could question Tony away from curious ears.

“Five days ago, my lead scientist, Dr Helen Cho, disappeared from our laboratories in the middle of the night. She is extremely loyal to our company, and was working on some highly classified technological developments into bio-mechanics, at the time. Understandably, we are both worried for her health and the possibility of the information she has getting found out by the wrong people.

“My father is currently playing host to a rival tycoon, a mister Tiberius Stone of Viastone. It is my understanding from some informants, that Stone is responsible for Dr Cho’s kidnapping.”

“How reliable are these informants?” Steve asked, a sceptical eyebrow raised.

“Extremely,” she said, voice clipped.

“Mister Stone plans to only be on-planet for another two days, then he will be departing to places unknown. We only have a short window in which to rescue Dr Cho,” she finished.

“Are we sure he hasn’t already smuggled her off the planet?” Steve asked.

“Again, our sources are sure that she is still here, being held captive either within his wing of the estate, or at the small laboratory his company owns here on Aquamarine.”

“You let a rival business establish a base in your own territory?” Steve snorted.

“It is good for the public image of Fujikawa Industries. It shows a healthy competition to our buyers and a trustworthiness,” she said, voice still patiently polite.

“Why haven’t you just gone to the authorities about this?”

“Fukikawa and Viastone are direct competitors. If we tried to accuse them of something like this, even if we could prove it, the public image of the company would be ruined,” Rumiko said, her mouth tight with what Steve suspected was annoyance.

“How typical of galactic businesses,” Steve said dryly.

“Mr Fury informs me that you and your crew are extremely efficient, Captain Rogers. However,” her eyes finally drifted to Tony and stayed there, Steve’s spine straightening automatically at the perceived threat. “I was not informed about certain members of your crew that will cause something of a… problem.”

The already strained atmosphere of the room grew colder as all eyes darted between Rumiko and Tony.

“It’s been a long time, Rumiko,” Tony spoke softly, something more like a grimace then a smile on his face.

“Indeed,” she said, voice just as soft.

“What kind of problem?” Steve’s voice was sharp and loud in the room.

Tony pulled his eyes from Rumiko and looked at Steve, a frown now clearly on his face.

“Tiberius and I knew each other a long time ago. I’m not convinced that if he saw me today, he wouldn’t immediately recognise who I was.”

Steve pushed down the irritation that sprung up inside him at those words. Not only did he not want to show discord within his crew before Nick Fury of all people, but they hadn’t known the names of the people they would be up against before they’d arrived. Nick had only waved them the bare bones of the details, so Tony hadn’t had any for-warning.

“Then you can wait with the ship and send Natasha down in your place,” Steve said, voice clipped.

Tony’s lips thinned, clearly unhappy with the dismissal, but he just gave a single nod of acquiescent and looked away.

“With that small detail taken care of, we may continue,” Steve looked back at Rumiko as she spoke. “You will, of course, be compensated for your time and efforts,” she stepped forward and held out a hand. “Do we have an accord?”

Steve made her wait a moment, the niggling voice in the back of his mind that demanded he ignore the job and instead investigate how she knew Tony, was almost overwhelming, before he managed to push past it and reach out to clasp her hand.

“We have an agreement.”

 

*

 

The job, it turned out, was relatively straight forward. Steve couldn’t deny that life was made much easier when most of the leg work was already done for them. Rumiko and her sources had already investigated the most likely places that Dr Cho might be held captive, and after Steve had brought Natasha down into the city dome and let her loose to do her own snooping for a few hours in the afternoon, she had corroborated with the information they’d been provided.

They had decided that Stone’s laboratory was the first place they would investigate. While he could be holding the scientist in his wing in the Fujikawa estate, Steve was pretty sure that it was a little too on the nose for what he’d heard over the galactic news broadcasts of Tiberius Stone. The man certainly wasn’t the smartest in the ‘verse, but if the way he’d swooped in on various intergalactic deals with multi-galaxy companies was any indication, then he was capable of being somewhat sneaky and manipulative.

Steve was honestly surprised at how easy the whole thing ended up being.

Sneaking into the Viastone factory had required him and Thor to dress up in Viastone uniforms, pushing a delivery crate into the buildings loading docks. Some forged paperwork and they were inside the factory. Locating Dr Cho was as simple as finding the only locked door in the storage room sector. They’d hidden her in the crate and walked out of the building with no one being any the wiser.

It was, by far, the easiest job they’d pulled in over a year.

The rondevu point had been on Aquamarine’s limited landing docks on the surface of the oceanic planet. Rumiko had organised for Dr Cho to get off world for a little while, until the heat around her disappearance had died down and Tiberius had left for one of the more Outer planets of the ‘verse.

Steve took the credits from Rumiko with satisfaction once she had seen her lead scientist whole and unharmed.

“I feel as though we should have perhaps negotiated for more,” he mused idly.

“ _Lai Huh Moh Sheong Tze Tian Uh Zoh,_ Captain,” Nick snapped, clearly done with his dose of outlaw criminals for now. “You should think of getting out of Aquamarine before the authorities realise something is wrong.”

“Authorities unlike your esteemed self,” Steve asked blandly, unable to not rise to the bait when he was still riding high from the victory of getting one over on someone who most assuredly deserved it.

Nick sent him a particularly venomous look, but turned his attention to escorting Dr Cho towards another ship that was awaiting her to depart.

The rest of his crew were already heading back to the Avenger, tired but cheerful after their successful job.

Steve made to leave as well, but the sight of Tony approaching Rumiko made him slip behind a large stack of creates that had no doubt been unloaded from one of the ships nearby. While he had lost sight of them, he could still make out the gentle murmur of their voices over the lapping of water against the dock.

“I wasn’t expecting to ever see you again,” Rumiko spoke quietly.

“I wasn’t planning on it,” Tony replied, his voice faintly amused.

“Yes, well, you didn’t exactly depart on good terms,” she admonished.

“You know why I did what I did,” Tony’s voice sounded tired.

“I understand, in a way. Even if I don’t agree with why you did it.” 

Steve strained as silence stretched between them. He contemplated if he could try and peer around the boxes to see what they were doing. Where they close enough to touch one another now? Had their hands entwined? Were they looking into one-another’s eyes about to kiss?

“I’m glad you’re still alive, Rumiko,” Tony finally broke the silence. “Though, I won’t lie and say I hope we meet again.”

“Tony!” There was the sound of movement, and Rumiko’s voice took on an almost desperate edge. “You don’t have to go, Tony. You could stay here, with me. You could finally stop running. We could tell everyone the truth, you could have everything that’s rightfully yours and-”

“No.”

The single word cut her off and Steve became aware of the ache in his fingers from where they had tightened into fists.

“You made your choice years ago, Rumiko. We proved we were unable to trust each other. It’s for the best that we leave the past where it belongs, behind us,” Tony’s voice was soft, but steel was hidden beneath the words. Whatever their history was, Tony seemed determined not to revisit it.

“Well, I suppose I should say _Gohn Shi_ to you then. I saw the way your Captain looked at you, and you at him,” her tone was upset.

“Don’t,” Tony’s voice was sharp and echoed slightly in the quiet. “Don’t talk about him,” he finished, more quietly.

Another beat of silence lingered between them, bursting at the seams with all that was left unsaid.

“Stay safe, Rumiko,” Tony said, before Steve heard him approaching and saw him pass where he was hidden.

He waited another few minutes before emerging from his hiding place. Dusting down his clothes, he took a step towards his ship when a voice startled him.

“Captain.”

Jerking around, he couldn’t keep the flush off his cheeks at having been caught blatantly eavesdropping on a private conversation.

Rumiko had moved to sit on some crates that had been left out on the narrow street after the busy rush of the day. He couldn’t help acknowledging that she looked rather pretty sitting there in her rich clothes in the watery light of night. The clip that held back her dark hair was in her hands, and the long strands spilled her right shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she pre-emptively said when he opened and closed his mouth uncomfortably.

“You are the not the first person to let their heart rule their mind when it comes to decision making,” she sounded faintly amused, but there was a deep sadness to her eyes.

“I wanted to offer you a piece of advice before you departed, anyway,” she continued, fiddling with the clip in her lap.

“I am sure you understand that Tony and I were once quite close. A few years ago, he just suddenly appeared in my life. He was so handsome and intelligent, I felt myself fall for him very quickly. He reciprocated my feelings,” she said, sad smile in place.

Steve felt him stomach twist unhappily at her words.

“However, there was much he did not tell me. I knew nothing of his past, he spoke not a word of where he was from or what he had spent the first decades of his life doing. All I knew of him was that he had arrived on my planet a few weeks before we met, and that was all. It didn’t matter how I begged or tried to bargain, he would not reveal anything to me.

“I grew angry at him for it. He was someone I loved very much, who I had shared many stories of my past with, and yet I knew nothing of his. In a fit of anger, I acted rashly and hired someone to investigate him.”

Steve frowned.

“When Tony found out, he was furious. He used a Good Night Kiss on me and I awoke the next morning in the front gardens.”

Steve winced slightly at the thought, a Good Night Kiss was a narcotic compound usually used by low-and-dirty seducers who were trying to swindle people into their lies. Usually applied to the lips, one kiss and the victim would be unconscious for hours, allowing the swindler to ransack their place and escape with time to spare.

“The investigative detective had been silenced, my safe looted and the estate burned to the ground. Tony disappeared from my life and I was left with whatever I could scrounge up as compensation,” Rumiko stood, brushing down her skirt to busy her hands.

“I gained my answers, Captain, but I lost that which I loved most,” she smiled sadly at him. “I was surprised when I saw him with you, I don’t think his eyes were ever that bright when they used to set upon me. Don’t make my mistake.”

She bowed slightly to him before turning and walking away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have desires above one's social/financial position, or beyond one's ability to realize: _Lai Huh Moh Sheong Tze Tian Uh Zoh_ , literally "for a toad to think of eating a swan."

Congratulations: _Gohn Shi._

 

**Author's Note:**

> \----
> 
> Disclaimer:  
> I feel like I need to make a blanket disclaimer for this story in regards to the Firefly influences that people familiar with that fandom will notice. So, here goes: yes, The Avenger is designed the same as Firefly - I love that tin can in the sky and have blatantly drawn inspiration for the layout from it. Reavers are in this story and I believe I may have the exact explanation as is seen in the episode 'Serenity'. I claim no originality to the invention of Reavers, they are terrifying and I bow to Joss Whedon's imagination. Similarly, the ship in 'Bushwhacked' made its way in here, as did the issues in 'Out of Gas', the planet Ariel, the Companion profession and Kaylee's parasol and chair. Most of the planets, moons, ect in here are names taken from NASA's list of documented sightings that I had fun looking through. A few are Latin for other things. Translations are taken - mostly - directly from the offical Firefly website that has a list of all the Chinese to English phrases and words used in the show. Finally, the story starts off close to Firefly lore and slowly branches out as we learn more about the crew and their own stories. I think that's all the main stuff, but let me know if I've glaringly missed something.


End file.
